Location: United States
Member Since: Sep. 25, 2011
Sam Culotta
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by Sam Culotta
- Finding Fred
on Oct. 24, 2011
As the saying goes, nobody escapes childhood unscathed. Tim Smith's childhood was impacted more than most by the sudden loss of his father in a plane crash. Not just any plane crash; it was a military training mission over the Arizona desert, ironic considering that Captain Fred Smith had survived 38 combat missions in Europe during WWII. What gives this story its power and poignancy is Smith's ability to evoke the the effects of the sudden loss on his mother, who gave birth to a second son the day following the disaster, and on his and his younger brother's lives. Too young to grasp the tragic elements of his father's death, Smith experienced the awful emptiness, the hollowed- out core of the family through the visible suffering of his mother who had to go on with her life and raise her two boys. He weaves his remembrances of her with his own growing realization that his father's death remains a central issue in his and his family's lives. And the only way to achieve some sense of closure is to research and visit the site of the crash. In the process , he and his brother learn more about the accident and their father than they ever hoped to. Regrets remain, but don't they always? Tim Smith has written an intelligent and sensitive memoir that we can all enjoy and appreciate.