Crippled Dreams [Paperback]

David Rehak's books are never a clone of the familiar genre fiction we find on shelves these days. His writing style is reminscent of the 19th century and very European in flavor. Rehak's work is different, his topics off center just enough to add a sense of intriguing unpredictablity into the read. This third book by David Rehak, while a different subject, clearly

reflects his unique voice as writer.

The setting of Crippled Dreams is rural France in the 1870s. The Prussians have swept through the bucolic countryside, raping and destroying as they go. Rose Petit is one of their helpless victims. Eight months pregnant, with her husband fighting away from home, she's set upon by four Prussian

soldiers bent on claiming Rose and her farm as spoils of war. When Rose defies them, they beat her mercilessly and leave her for dead. Her first born son is physically damaged from the beating and born paralyzed in both legs.

Rose loves her crippled son, Alexandre, and lavishes him with mother love from birth. Even when her husband Paul returns from war and a second son, Gustave, is born, Alexandre receives the lion's share of her love and attention. Through such loving attentions, Rose hopes her crippled son's soul will be made fine, if not his ruined body.

As Alexandre ages, his bitterness and hopeless rage increase incrementally. He silently observes the world around him, filled with healthy, happy people with unimpaired bodies, and curses a God who picks and chooses who He blesses. He blasphemes God at every opportunity and refuses to believe

Rose's assurances of a loving Heavenly Father. His feelings of resentment come to full flower when Gustave starts courting Marie-Anne Godard. Marie-Anne is a beauty, with billows of dark hair and flashing eyes that reveal a captivating spirit.

Alexandre dreams of finding true love with his brother's fiancee but accepts her loyal friendship as a poor substitue. When Gustave discovers that Alexandre and Marie-Anne have become close friends, his temper sets off a situation that ends in horrible tragedy. In the aftermath, nothing can be done to lessen Alexandre's despair. Only God's grace and mercy can heal a crippled body, mind, and spirit, but can a loving God reach Alexandre?

David Rehak takes common situations and transforms them to uncommon through his use of words and his development of interesting characters. If you are tired of the same old genre fiction, check out Crippled Dreams.

Laurel Johnson

Midwest Book Review

sensitive author soon. It has been my pleasure to be a part of this author's growth, if only in reading his novelas.

In this soul-devining tale of a man crippled from birth and pampered by an over solicitous but well-meaning mother: we are swept along dark corridors of despair and strain our eyes and our hearts looking for that light at the end of the tunnel.

The Cain and Abel relationship of the two brothers, Alexandre, the cripple and Gustave, the 'perfect' one, becomes even more intriguing when Marie-Anne is stirred into the mix. A beautiful girl affianced to Gustave and loved by both brothers, she plays a major role in the surprise and emotionally satisfying ending.

Rehak writes with a charming simplicity and smooth seques to form an enchantingly gripping story.

I look forward to his next and hope he continues to supply us with many more hours of reading pleasure.

"Crippled Dreams" is a love story but it is also a story of conflicts. It begins with the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. After a pregnant French woman was brutally attacked by four Prussian soldiers, she gives birth to a son, Alexandre, who is paralyzed from the thigh down. Throughout his formative years Alexandre takes some solace in books but by the time he is in his early twenties he is embittered and frustrated, totally dependent, yet desperate for life experience. He can only watch with envy and resentment as his younger brother Gustave reaps rewards. Gustave is equally resentful of Alexandre, jealous of all the attention lavished on him by his pious, over-protective mother Rose, who is torn by guilt.

While Rose is deeply religious, Alexandre finds it hard to believe in a Saviour that has left him the way he is. Nevertheless he dutifully goes to church, where the minister urges his congregation to accept that a happy, full life is not to be found in the acquisition of material goods and short-term pleasures. Fame and fortune are meaningless. Faith and spirituality are far more rewarding in the long run. (This is an appropriate point to recommend the non-fiction book "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton.) Those who appear to have everything are in actual fact plastic and superficial, lacking the fundamental qualities that make it possible to live a truly satisfying life. The minister explains what those qualities are more fully.

The conflict between the two brothers is intensified with the arrival of Marie-Anne, who, to Alexandre's disappointment and heartbreak, is betrothed to Gustave. Alexandre is convinced Marie-Anne is making a grave mistake, not marrying because of love, but to fulfill an obligation to society.

Another conflict in "Crippled Dreams" is that of science and religion. For much of the book Alexandre maintains his scepticism, finding more credibility in the cold logic of science. Rose is desperate for Alexandre to accept God's love in order to save his soul. Alexandre is an agnostic who half hopes that there is an afterlife, because it would make all the senseless misery in the world, the suffering endured throughout history, worthwhile and meaningful. There is a comfort in believing that the life we live in this world is merely a preparation for the eternal life of the next world.

Are we supposed to choose religion over science, or can we accept both? It is a telling point that "Crippled Dreams" is set in the late 19th century. In the century that has passed since Alexandre's time, the world has become increasingly secular as science has achieved much that was once considered impossible. Today there is talk about stem cell research, a subject considered controversial by many, but having the potential to wipe out needless anguish. How would Alexandre have felt about it if he had lived in our time? If God made us in His image, giving us the knowledge to learn, grow and progress, it wouldn't be sacrilegious to perform our own miracles, would it?

I think I'm starting to ramble now so I'll conclude by saying that "Crippled Dreams" is a very thought-provoking book. Very well written.

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