My Gentle Barn

by Ellie Laks with Nomi Isak

This book is about how someone with a troubled childhood found solace and healing in the companionship of animals. She nearly crashed and burned as a drug addict but then pulled her life together and started rescuing dogs from kill shelters to place them in new homes. Lots of ups and downs, struggles with her marriage, friction with neighbors which precipitated a huge move. Eventually she acquired more property and ran a sanctuary, a place to take in mistreated farm animals. She opened her doors to groups of at-risk and troubled teens, hoping that some contact with the animals and hearing their stories would help them on the path to recovery, as well. Apparently she did really well with her operation, learning as she went, nurturing the animals in spite of many setbacks, finding a new husband and raising three kids along the way. Most of all, her love was for the animals. I did enjoy reading this book, although I raised my eyebrows at a few things- she claims to be able to hear animals speak to her mind, telling her their true names, to have been lead by "whisperings" to animals in need, and so forth... The writing is a bit simplistic and lots of details are left out, but this does not surprise me with a book that is co-authored, when after all she's not a writer by trade. I also thought at first that she was just sparing us the worst details, which could be hard to stomach when reading a story about both child abuse and animals being seriously neglected and mistreated. Most of it is uplifting, hearing about how the animals are cared for, most of them recover to enjoy peaceful lives.

But... why does this happen so often? I finish reading a memoir or story like this, hop onto the computer to see who else may have written about it (usually because I want to learn more about the background, find out where things have gone since the book was written, or locate other points of view on the book) and encounter some harsh criticism accusing the author of blatant lies and misrepresentation. Sigh. So now I don't know what to believe, and having found such bitter criticism sours me on the whole story.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5         268 pages, 2014