Letting Go

By: Abe Aamidor

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

All deaths are hard to bear. But losing a son is the hardest.

Memory of war always loomed large for Dwight Bogdanovic. After all, his immigrant grandfather volunteered to fight in World War I, and his working-class father joined up with the Canadian Army to fight the Nazis early in World War II. Yet it is only when Dwight's soldier son Bertrand is killed under mysterious circumstances in Afghanistan that he really tries to understand why men fight and die.

Dwight Bogdanovic enjoyed a golden childhood in his idealized vision of 1950s America - freely riding his bicycle in the streets, pick-up ball games in the park, and earning pocket money by shoveling snow or raking leaves for neighbors - but coming of age proved difficult for him.

After dropping out of college during the height of the Vietnam War and after receiving a medical deferment from the draft, he travels the Midwest selling encyclopedias door-to-door to people who don't want them, then returns to his hometown of Indianapolis. There he lands a series of temp jobs and hooks up with a hippie girlfriend before meeting the good woman who will become his wife. All seems right again until, one by one, all his beloveds succumb to their own fates - disease, old age, and war. Especially his son, especially war.

Dwight struggles to overcome the loss of Bertrand and constantly replays letters from him in his head before realizing, with the help of yet another woman in his life, that the greatest challenge is not merely to survive, but to let go.

©2018 Abe Aamidor (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

In loss, we find threads of what might have been

Letting Go provides a poignant journey into the loss and hope that each of us uniquely takes. After losing a son, the healing process provides Dwight with a fresh perspective on his narrative identity, as well as the well-worn threads which tie all fathers and sons, as well as his place within that personal framework. In his reflections, we see echoes of the themes that bind all of us to the commonality of human existence- grief and loss, the slow unveiling of personal truth, independence of spirit, humor, and the lasting foundations of hope.

I found it refreshing and insightful, accentuated with a realism that made me at times question if this was a fictional novel or a fictionalized account of actual events. While the story revolves around grief, it is never overly solemn or mired in the heartstricken pain of a parent. Rather we are moved in and around the processing of grief and the lingering impact that one individual makes on another. The author paints vivid and palatable vignettes inviting the audience to encounter something new within the familiar and mundane. As a native Hoosier, the array of details both in Indianapolis and Chicago rings true and serve to heighten the narrative. In all, an enjoyable read and with lasting impressions.