According to the author, this book covers the true-life story of the author. The back cover asks, 'How many times can you die?' It speaks of multiple heart surgeries, being mugged, being shot, plane crashes and more. The title of the book, 'The Man Who Wouldn't Die' leads one to believe that the reader will be taken on a fantastical journey of a man who is the survivor of all survivors.

If taken at face value, the book can show what someone can go through and survive.

One of the first things a writer learns is that his story must be believable. This is true if the author is writing fiction, fantasy or an autobiography. The problem is, in this particular book, I simply didn't buy it. Rather than a glorious accounting of one who rose above a life filled with trauma, neglect, adversity and life challenging adventures, I felt as if I were reading a 'poor, poor, pitiful me' book mixed with a prideful gloating about surviving.

The books talks of the author being attacked by his little brother multiple times as children; that his brother was trying to kill him. One has to wonder a) where were the parents and b) how could a mere child (in one case a young child) kill an older brother. One has to wonder why this child didn't get some help?
Rather than reading and enjoying the story, this reader was wondering what was wrong with the family.

Some of the supposedly 'true' events seemed a bit beyond the pale.

That had the book been written differently, it could have been a testament to a survivor. You want to believe it all happened, but the way it was presented, I simply did not. More, it seemed that many of the issues were, if not the author's fault, were not helped by him to either stop or not happen in the future.

There are far better survivor stories out there that have the readers rooting for the author.

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Created Sep 20, 2011 at 4:25pm • Submit your own review...