A COMMUNION OF SORROW
A new memoir by Don Follis offers a peek behind the curtain of loss
Memoirs are often overstuffed with travelogues and name-dropping, but a new book from Don Follis, Leaving the Land of Numb, offers something different. A pastor who lost his adult son, Follis demonstrates through painful example the frustrations and day-to-day realities of living with loss.
Follis writes with genuine candor. His enriching anecdotes have an undertone of sorrow that informs each page. From him, we get a sense that in our own spiritual trials, we are not alone.
Bereaved parents often quip with dark humor and sorrowing eyes that they belong to an exclusive club that no one wants to join. Follis shows us just how painful membership can be. He offers a peek behind the curtain of loss. In his most powerful chapter, “The Thief Comes Only to Steal and Kill and Destroy,” Follis tackles the emotional complexities of grief and parental bereavement. “There is no going back to normal,” he writes of the death of his son, “when your child precedes you in death.”
Brief asides such as these may be the memoirs greatest gift. The author’s love for his son, and his hope for reunion, offers a true communion of sorrow.
The author has the pastoral predilection for anecdotes and a certain fondness for New Testament passages. At times this provides that human touch and a sense of comfort with the familiar. The book is slim, packed with plenty of white space, and most certainly an easy read. There are no citations for the text’s ubiquitous quotations, but the book provides study questions and a useful list of volumes for further reading.
Leaving The Land Of Numb: A Journey to Connect My Emotional and Spiritual Lives. By Don Follis. (Mountain Ash Press; July 6, 2023). 256 pages. ISBN-10 : 1952430720 ; ISBN-13 : 978–1952430725.
Disclosure Statement
David Bannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this review. Bannon is acquainted with Don Follis.
