Wise, Luminous, and Full of Grace
Reviewed in Canada on December 14, 2019
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Simply stunning! This exquisitely written memoir recounts the author’s courageous, moving, and deeply honest journey towards healing. To say this memoir is beautiful seems strange given the nature of the traumatic events. And yet, beautiful it is, the beauty lying not only in its luminous prose but also in the wise, big-hearted grace with which all of it is told. Profound and brilliant. Highly recommended.
Joanna Carson
5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing story of trauma and recovery, adventure and awakening.
Reviewed in Canada on November 18, 2019
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My Impossible Life by Charlene Jones is a great memoir that I loved exploring. The book reveals how it is possible to overcome a trauma that literally numbed her senses. She relates how she coped for many years with a wild lifestyle and a connection to an iconic teacher, Namgyal Rinpoche. She gave a good description of how she worked systematically to unravel her horrific experience. Her days of terror were also revealed in pieces throughout the book as she travelled, learned to meditate and went through relationships scarred by her past. I enjoyed reading about her love of poetry and friendship with Cecelie another evolved woman and teacher. Charlene lets her readers into her life, walking beside her on her journey to wholeness. I look forward to reading more insightful works by this special writer.
My Impossible Life by Canadian-born Writer Charlene Jones Offers Profound Insights Derived from Epic Healing Journe
Review by: KEN KORCZAK
This book might be compared to On the Road if Jack Kerouac had been a woman and talented. Kerouac was merely a social malcontent and a drunk. I tend to agree with Truman Capote’s conclusion on Kerouac’s work: “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”
CHARLENE JONES, however, turns in a story about an epic road trip that traverses an international path. That path does double duty as both a physical journey around the planet and an esoteric trek into the deeper levels of the soul.
MY IMPOSSIBLE LIFE is not typing. It’s writing.
I would describe Jones’ writing style as organic. Other good words might be earthy, sensual and visceral. At the same time, her result is vivid and immediate with everything laid right out on the surface. Each page will sting the reader with the author’s palpable sense of psychic pain. It’s easy for us to grasp – at least intellectually — what’s generating her agony. At the tender young age of 16, she was abducted and brutally raped and tortured by two escaped convicts.
I don’t want to give any more away, except to say this book is about so much more than a person desperately seeking an escape hatch from the misery of her own existence. Like Odysseus blown off course and lost in what seems to be a relentlessly weird and hostile universe, Jones is sailing the ship of her life from destination to destination, only to discover that no matter how much she travels in the physical world, she brings her essential self with her
Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite
My Impossible Life: Trauma Travel Transcendence by Charlene D. Jones is a fascinating memoir. It chronicles the author's journey from being taken captive by two men, the horrible secrets that time held and the numbness that followed after that, her meeting David, life with a schizophrenic mother, the crazy life she led, the angels asking her to leave David, boarding a plane to England and India, finding a spiritual guide, her Tibetan guru, meeting Cecilie, and other global adventures. The account finally sees her embarking on a meditative path towards self-acceptance, redemption, and healing, one that gives hope, courage, and strength to many readers out there to overcome challenges and adversity in their lives, putting them on a path to recovery and self-discovery.
My Impossible Life gives glimpses of not only Charlene D. Jones being a survivor but also how she courageously transformed her life, instead of wallowing in self-pity and getting caught up in the grief and trauma she experienced. She is honest and straightforward as she speaks about her life, how she decided to heal herself from the traumas she experienced and make her life whole and complete. The author's story will motivate readers, and her spiritual practices and her determination to heal and transform her life are incredible as they show a woman's strength and belief in herself. Charlene D. Jones's story of healing and triumph will give hope to many readers about being able to transcend their past and move towards a future that is meaningful and just the opposite of what she went through. Her detailed narration makes her compelling and traumatic story palpable to readers, an inspiring example on their journey to recovery from grief, trauma, and adversity.
Whistler Independent Book Awards—
Charlene Jones has written a fascinating book filled with globe-trotting adventures and interior journeys through mystical landscapes. She shares her emotional exploration of eastern and western healing practices and comes through the fire of her trauma conscious and liberated. This book will inspire others who may wish to undertake their own healing journeys.
