MWSA Book Review

Falling Through the Earth

Authors:  Danielle Trussoni

Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company

Reviewer: Bill McDonald – President of the MWSA

A daughter’s memoir of life with a dysfunctional family and PTSD Father

There are some books that you want to read for pure joy of entertainment but this is not one of those – this is a book that you will be compelled to read and unable to put down until you have read that last page and are totally emotionally exhausted! Danielle Trussoni  author of “Falling Through The Earth” writes a heavy and deeply moving tale of her life living and surviving with her dysfunctional family and PTSD father.

There is so much hurting and wasted relationship opportunities as you read the unfolding tale of Danielle’s life. Emotionally you'll want to reach out and give her a big rescuing hug and pull her out of the depths of her outer and inner environment. This is not a happy tale with any kind of “Leave it to Beaver” or “The Brady Bunch” ending. This is real life and unfortunately, it is a story that is not so isolated or rare. PTSD destroys more families then anyone might dare to count.

Danielle comes across first and foremast as a survivor. But like her own father who survived Vietnam, that is not enough spiritually or emotionally. She sees things that a small child should not and is dragged through bars and her parents divorce. She loves her father and desperately seeks that in return. However, her dad is not capable of showing those kinds of emotions any more and she is left hungry for attention and hugs and love. She does the rebellion routine that some teenage girls go though with drinking, drugs, shop lifting, sex and wild friends. Through out all that she endures, she still loves her father and still keeps reaching out to find his empty arms and hollowed out heart.

She decides to take a life altering trip to Vietnam and visit the places her dad was stationed. She also makes it a point to visit and go into the tunnels at Chu Chi. Her father was a “tunnel rat” and she wanted to experience what it must have felt like for him back in 1968. She finds Vietnam scary and has someone even stalk and attack her. But she gains a new found respect for what her father had to endure in that war ravaged country. She could only image what it was like then but she did get a taste of the possibilities.

Danielle is a gifted writer and she takes us on a journey of the heart and allows us to see and feel her pain. She uses phrasing and wording like a razor sharp scalpel in the hands of a surgically trained doctor. She avoids feeling sorry for herself and actually underwrites and emotionally understates huge events in her life like her parents divorce. One can detect the awful pain of that for a young child.

Her discovery of the “rest of her family” adds another dysfunctional twist to her life as does her father’s cancer and health issues. But the real story in the cerebral and spiritual toll this women endured – is in the truest sense she and her entire family are all victims of her dad’s PTSD and they all suffered right along with him.

I personally could identify with her dysfunctional family issues having had a step-father who suffered from WWII issues and drank his life away. In the case of this family, there are so many issues that they all choose to ignore, even though the issues presented themselves like gigantic elephants right in their front room. But this is like so many dysfunctional families and that is what makes this book so universal and not just related to having a PTSD father.

It is good to see that our author does pull her life together and goes on to college and gets a degree in social work; but one wonders if she has exorcised all those inner demons and if they will continue to haunt her. I think writing this memoir perhaps purged a part of that for her.

I feel that this book is a must read for many reasons. However, if the author’s personal story gives others more understanding how PTSD infects and changes everyone else around them – then that is a good start. But a better result would be the recognition for the need to seek help as soon as possible for the health of everyone. This book was no doubt therapeutic for the author; my hope is that others will also find it helps to heal them as well.

I finished this book late in the night and am up early to write my review and the book cover image of that little girl being held by her father sits on my desk crying out to me. This was a tough read for me but I feel it delivered a message of hope as well. I am looking forward to seeing how our young author hero goes forth with the rest of her life. God knows that anyone one who reads this will be rooting for her to succeed!

The MWSA gives this book its highest rating of FIVE STARS and as an additional rating of Five Kleenex Boxes! I personally endorse this book and recommend that you add it to your book purchase list. This is really good!

Reviewer: Joe Fabel – MWSA Review Board

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome doesn't belong only to the returning veteran; its effects can be seen in his relations with members of his family. Battles in war as well as battles in relationships can maime, wound, shatter in equal measure. Each injured party brings individual environmental and personality influences to the brew.

This memoir exposes the mental and psychological scars of a father and a daughter. Their relationship is highly stressed; contributing factors arise on both sides and are furthered by a denial to express love openly.

In an attempt to understand her father, the daughter travels to Vietnam. She visits those areas mentioned by her father as found in his notes taken at the time of his tour. Her reactions are mixed. It is difficult to understand what another person went through, especially when bullets, bombs and death are not present. Besides, she is tormented by her own "devils."

The question continues throughout the book as to which one, father or daughter, is able to come to grips with reality: the father fights against the facts, wishing not to bare his inner most thoughts; the daughter lives a life of rejection until she realizes the answers cannot be discovered in that realm.

At times respectful, sometimes loving, most often conflicting, this story of a daughter and her father deeply affects the reader. You wish to reach through and heal the hurt; but you understand that these two must be the ones who bring understanding and healing. It is an important lesson for all of us.

**SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS to Danielle for making one of the top 10 books of the year for 2006 in the New York Times reviews.