What a fascinating book! For some reason, when I picked this one up, I wasn't expecting to like it. I'm not sure I prejudged it that way but was my pre-conceived notions ever wrong.
"The Boy Born Dead" is a true story of a boy who was dead for almost 20 minutes at birth but came back to life. It follows the trials he, David Ring, faced as a result of the cerebral palsy which came about due to the lack of oxygen in those 20 minutes.
It's written from the viewpoint of his to-be best friend, David Wideman. This viewpoint was thoroughly enjoyable and the honesty was intense. If I was having my best friend pen my life story, I would be more than tempted to ask them to tone down the parts where I acted like an idiot or a jerk. Not so in "The Boy Born Dead". All the failings of everyone involved are put out there for all the world to see. In it's own way, this was an important aspect of the book because if you don't know how bad you were, you can't appreciate God's grace and power to change you.
One caution I will give about this book is this: Although it's done as tastefully as possible, the main character was sexually abused and it is in the story. Although it was by no means graphic, it was still very disturbing simply due to the nature of the crime. However, to have left it out of the story would also have greatly taken away from Mr. Ring's triumph over everything that kept him down.
I really enjoyed this book. It flowed well and the dialogue was well written. Two thumbs up!
BTW, I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
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