Great Read

Great read, kept me going. Not meant to be everyone's taste, but if it is, you will enjoy. Fiction or non-fiction... we may never know. Why do we have to classify? For about the same price as going to a bad movie, you will almost certainly get more out of it, whether you liked it or not. Go for it!

Even if you don't believe it...

...this book works. You don't have to believe Florinda Donner experienced or witnessed everything in this book to find something useful about her portrayal of the life of a Venezuelan healer and spiritualist (our modern, American terms). Read it like a novel that certainly feels like it was thoroughly researched. You'll find it an excellent journey to a place you've never been before.

the cubic centimeter of chance

I can't leave this marvelous book with a couple of limited reviews here at Amazon, even though it's been ten years since I last read it. Donner's story is simply a great human story; it's really about becoming more human. It's about the simple necessities in life, about the choices we are forced to make when choices are most limited, and about the life we find through that "cubic centimeter of chance." It gets outside -- thank God! -- the crime and punishment limited mentality of America....and of course that is why such a book will bore some readers and frighten others.