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Formats
E-Book Details
  • 12/2018
  • 9781532063657
  • 224 pages
  • $$3.99
Soft Cover Details
  • 12/2018
  • 9781532063640
  • 224 pages
  • $$13.99
Yvon Milien
Author
The Rhythm of My Life
Yvon Milien, author

Adult; Memoir; (Market)

Throughout his life, author Yvon Milien has faced delays, denials, frustrations, isolation, failure, betrayals, affronts from friends, and the premature loss of loved ones many times. His experiences were a mix of the sad and the tragic, and he needed to develop values to survive and support himself. In The Rhythm of My Life, he narrates his story. Inspirational in substance, this memoir offers a perspective of how to deal with the challenges, how to tune into the rhythm of fires the wind of destiny blows into life. Milien tells how providence, the government of God, made him aware that the only way to overcome the negative was to develop his inner strength. Milien documents his sour, spicy life to share with others the methodology he used to deal with his dilemmas. Providence persuaded him to see that sharing his story was a vehicle to inspire others and help them make their lives an adventure rather than a sentence.
Reviews
In his rambling debut memoir, Milien chronicles his search for spiritual meaning as he struggles to make sense of life and surrender to the power of the Almighty. His father, a Haitian military officer, was killed when Milien was an infant. Milien was adopted by his grandmother, while his mother remarried and started a new family without him. The account of his early years is studded with vivid tales of voodoo rituals and exorcising evil spirits. As Milien grew, he was influenced by the spiritualist Georges Barbarin’s writings about how to follow the will of God, even when it is not easy. The sudden deaths of his mother and fiancée, along with Haiti’s political turmoil, drove a heartbroken Milien to move to the U.S. After dabbling with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Episcopalians, he discovered the Mormon faith, which sustains him to this day.

“Everything that happens to me in this life is divine,” Milien writes. This holistic perspective unfortunately leads him to mingle recollections of religious discovery and personal pathos in a work that has no obvious audience. Readers interested more in the spiritual side of Milien’s story may weary of the recollections of mundane interactions with people Milien has known. Those drawn in by the angst of childhood trauma and romantic difficulty may skim the paragraphs devoted to religious philosophy. A disjointed writing style occasionally overwhelms the book’s dramatic and inspiring elements.

A significant drawback to Milien’s profoundly personal story of finding a spiritual path is his assumption that readers are familiar with the religions he explored and with Barbarin’s writing. Discussions of what Milien found attractive or off-putting in different faiths would have increased the work’s value for readers seeking their own enlightenment.

Takeaway: Christian readers may glean some nuggets of insight from Milien’s unconventional journey to finding happiness and a faith that fits.

Great for fans of: Eckhart Tolle, Joyce Meyer

Production grades:
Cover: B
Design and typography: -
Illustrations: -
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: B

Formats
E-Book Details
  • 12/2018
  • 9781532063657
  • 224 pages
  • $$3.99
Soft Cover Details
  • 12/2018
  • 9781532063640
  • 224 pages
  • $$13.99
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