Forged Through Fire

     BOOK REVIEW:   When Mark McDonough was a teen, a catastrophic fire claimed the lives of his mother and younger brother. It also left Mark with burns on over 65 percent of his body. During a long and painful recovery, his faltering faith in God was strengthened by a remarkable near death experience. Numerous reconstructive surgeries and postoperative rehabilitation motivated him to become a physical therapist. His work with burn, disease, and trauma patients inspired him to become a reconstructive surgeon, working to help those who suffer as he has. McDonough has overcome numerous other adversities on his journey, including addition and a stroke. Now he shares his incredible true story of survival and perseverance to bring hope and healing to those dealing with great physical and emotional pain.

     MY REVIEW:   Some people have easy lives and don't appreciate it; after reading this book I realize I am one of them. I cannot imagine surviving the immense suffering Mark endured, both by his burns and the loss of his mother and little brother. And if that wasn't enough, throughout the years he lost another brother, suffered a stroke and numerous other afflictions, and battled addiction. Yet through it all he kept his faith in God. He certainly had lows in his relationship with God, but was always able to find his way back.
     The first half of the book especially flipped between past a present frequently, and was done well to avoid confusion. It gave the backstory without requiring many long chapters, which kept the story moving. The first two-thirds of the book cover Mark's time in the hospital recovering from his burns; the rest covers his adult life til present. I really enjoyed the book, especially the first portion of it. After he left the hospital, the story seems to skim over the next years. I don't know how it can really be avoided without giving numerous and cumbersome details, but the feel of the book changed a little. And a lot of that would be due to Mark's moving on with life and not only recounting his hospital experiences.
     A challenge to me in this book is Mark's career change. He had pondered becoming a surgeon but went the route of physical therapist instead. Later he decided to pursue medical school even though he would have to take college classes around his full-time job, pass his medical test, get accepted into medical school, and would be nearly 40 by the time he could establish his own independent practice. But his thought was this:  "Then again, I acknowledged that if I nixed the idea altogether, I'd still wake up at forty wondering what might have happened had I taken the first step toward such a goal."  Often we feel we've missed the time to realize our dreams, but all it takes is one step forward followed by others and we can still get there.

  I received a copy of this book from REVELL and was not required to write a positive review.