Book Review: A Bit of Appreciation for Life

A Fortunate Life by Albert B. Facey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Struggling to decide between 3 and 4 stars for this. Let's say 3.5 stars. Before I write my review, I want to apologise because this isn't going to be very thorough. This story has a lot of aspects and I am going to talk about those that I enjoyed the most. Also, I must admit, I skipped over a lot descriptive bits and had to 'speed-read' at certain points.

I picked up this book as a part of the 'Around the World in 12 Books' challenge that I am doing with my friends. Through this book, we were exploring Australia! The author's childhood was heart-breaking. His mother abandoned him and at a very early age, he was sent to work. A lot of the places he worked in were unimaginably cruel to him. Once he was flogged almost to death. It is very difficult to read about the cruelty, the abandonment, the lack of education, the lack of opportunity to form long term bonds with people that Bert faced as a child. I was very touched by his courage and tenacity through it all. He showed great skill and promise while working in the farm. Through very trying times, he appreciated even the littlest of things. As mentioned in the 'Afterword', the role of a child in the house was very different back then. The one person who stood by him was his grandmother. She was a constant support in his life. She played the role that his mother failed to play. The saddest bit of his childhood was when he met his mother again and she inevitably asked him for money.

To me, the story has two parts. Before Bert joined the First World War and after. I felt like the descriptive bits were far less during in the second part and the story finally picks up pace. Surviving the war was no small task. The atrocities he described were chilling. One in particular was how he was horrified by the face of a man being bayonetted to death. He returned with very serious injuries and took a long while to recover. As soon as he did, he wasted no time in rebuilding his life. In modern times, with a growing awareness about mental health, I cannot begin to truly appreciate the effort it took to move past those horrific experiences and integrate into day to day life again.

One might think that a difficult childhood filled with hardships would make Bert a bitter man. That did not happen. He was a loving husband and a loving father to his children. The years he spent as a family man was also filled with many hardships. From his house burning down to crops failing. He lost his grandmother, his siblings and even one of sons. Finally, he lost his wife too.

Nevertheless, he truly believed he had a fortunate life. It was very inspiring to see his undiminished spirit, like a flame that keeps on burning. This story makes you truly appreciate how much you have in life. It is no small feat for a child who was illiterate to grow up and write a book which is so detailed. I was quite taken by Bert's memory. He wrote this book after retirement and yet he remembered his childhood in vivid detail. Bert's kindness and humility truly shows through his writing. You will often see him appreciating a good meal he had as a child and even how he slept that particular night. The book ends with his wife passing away and the last few lines bring tears to my eyes.

"The loss of my lovely girl, my wife, has been a terrible shock to me. I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back."

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