The Rockin' Chair, by Steven Manchester, is an emotional novel about family history and repairing the hurts the world can impose and those that we cause each other. John McCarthy, the patriarch of the McCarthy family, is at the center of this beautiful story. With his wife, Alice, he created a wonderful life and attempted to raise his son to the best of his ability. But people see history differently, and his son doesn't feel his father's love. That history is passed down to a third generation, and Grandpa John's grand kids have a world of hurt that is all their own. When his beloved Alice dies after a heartbreaking fight with dementia, Grandpa John realizes that he has work to do to repair his family before he can join his beautiful wife.
This story was incredibly touching and beautifully written. With the back drop of a picturesque Montana farm, Steven Manchester artfully weaves this family's tale told through both present time and each person's memories. As I read this book, and fell in love with this family, I found it amazing that two people who share the same experience can see it so differently. One believes he has done the best to show his son his love without making him soft, the other feels that nothing he can do is ever good enough and that he is a constant disappointment. A father who works so hard because everything he has will be his son's, and a son who doesn't feel his father's love. John McCarthy realizes the mistakes he made before it is too late though, and does everything he can to right the past.
The book is filled with an old man's wisdom, gained from a life time of experiences. It is wisdom that I think each of us can use to better our own lives. As I finished the last page, the words within had me thinking of my own experiences and my sometimes difficult relationship with my mother who had her own demons. It's too late for me to fix things with my mother, she died three years ago. It's too late for me to offer any kind of forgiveness to her, although I tried to show it in the last few weeks of her life as I cared for her. This book imparts the wisdom that showing it isn't the same thing as saying it, because many times our actions are not seen for what we mean them to be, unless we voice our thoughts along with them.
What I also realized is that I need to make sure my kids know every day that their parents are proud of them, and love them unconditionally. Otherwise they will receive the same legacy of always seeking approval and never feeling that they measure up.
This book is an example of why we should never stop reading. Reading is enjoyment but more than that, to read is to learn, even through the experiences of fictional characters.
Happy Reading!
