Facing the Wind: The True Story of Tragedy and Reconciliation (Nova Audio Books)

Rating:
Summary: Too discursive
Review: "Facing the Wind" by Julie Salamon is a well intentioned and well written account of a father's brutal and deliberate killing of his wife and three children--one of whom was born with multiple handicaps and was severely impaired--his subsequent incarceration in a mental hospital--and eventual release back into society after two and a half years and attempts to be reinstated as an attorney.

It is also the story of a group of women who formed a "support group" because THEIR children were similarly handicapped, and how they came to admire the Rowe family because of the loving sacrifices both Rob Rowe and his wife,Mary, made to care for their multiply handicapped son,Christopher, as well as other children.

Quite frankly, I found the book disappointing. Instead of focusing primarily on Rob Rowe and the legal and moral issues involved in mounting an "Insanity Defense"--Julie Salamon spends an endless amount of time delving into the lives and personalities of the women in the "Support Group" which the Rowe's joined.

Who really CARES about THEM? The story of the Rowes is what's really important.

I know most of the reviewers who have already reviewed her book will probably disagree with me, but except for the parts dealing specifically with the Rowe's and the woman whom he eventually married after he was released from the mental institution, I found all the details about the Support Group to be largely UNNECESSARY AND IRRELEVANT to the main story, namely the killing of the Rowe children, the issues involved in his determing his innocence or guilt, and the aftermath of the tragedy.

This is not a very satisfying book because Julie Salamon simply SPREADS HERSELF TOO THIN!

Rating:
Summary: A Depressing but Important read
Review: A very intriguing look at mental illness. A very sad story, that is about the death of one family that leads to the creation of another.

Rating:
Summary: Love, Grace, forgiveness....in a true crime story
Review: How would any of us react if someone we thought we knew well, a respected member of our community, suddenly beat his family to death with a baseball bat? And how would we react if we knew he'd remarried years later and started a new family? As riveting as these questions may be, they are only part of what made this book so fascinating to me. What made it unforgettable was how it made me think about the limits of love and forgiveness and how several families were put to the test in circumstances as horrendous as this. Please be aware that this is NOT your usual true crime book, although it is based on true events and the writer does try to make sense of a crime most of us would consider senseless- the murder of 4 members of a family, the Rowes, by the husband/father of that family, a man considered by friends and neighbors to be a loving and attentive parent and spouse. But it goes beyond the murder to give a riveting, detailed portrait of several families and how they lived both before and after this crime tore apart their community. These families had one thing in common - all of them had children with physical or emotional disabilities and the mothers in those families belonged to a support group. The author of this book, Julie Salamon, shows how each person was affected by the challenge of having a handicapped child and how they turned to the Rowes for guidance and inspiration. While some readers might find this part of the book irrelevant and even tedious, I did not. It not only made me think about the unusual stresses faced by families who have children with special needs but it revealed the Rowe family through the eyes of those closest to them. The Rowes were seen as role models and ideals, a family that was dealing with their disabled son as best they could, even better than many others would. The supposed stability of this family is what makes the murders so much more shocking and the author of this book doesn't hesitate to reveal the events leading up to the murder and the spiraling depression that overwhelms Bob Rowe. But she doesn't stop there. She goes on to show his life after institutionalization, his remarriage and eventual death - and then the meeting of his 2nd wife and the women who'd been close to his first wife. Many of them are still angry, baffled and judgmental. I won't reveal the ending of this book to you but will say if you have the willingness to stick with this one, I think you'll find it will force you to think about grace and forgiveness in even the worst circumstances. I admit I'm not sure I don't understand a man like Bob Rowe but I'll never forget him or his family and I'll be thinking about this book and the issue it raised for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Exhaustively researched, ambitious, maddening
Review: I don't know why I bought this book, but I am glad I did. I was drawn into the plight of these parents and to the Rowe family. Having mixed emotions about Bob Rowes "second life," I struggled to find a space where I could fogive Bob and to accept his ability to move on. A compelling story that makes one think about the extremes of forgiveness.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping True Crime
Review: Julie Salamon's Facing the Wind is a gripping true crime work that tells the heartbreaking story of a man who murders his wife and three children (one of them being severely disabled) and is subsequently found not guilty by reason of insanity. Bob and Mary Rove were the perfect couple, everyone loved them. Even when their second son Christopher is born with serious disabilities, Bob and Mary were a terrific couple. Bob was incredibly supportive of Christopher and worked hard to help him develop. Somewhere along the way, though, something in Bob snapped. He sought help, but found none and wound up murdering his family with a baseball bat. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and ultimately was given another chance to find happiness. Did he deserve it? Was the insanity defense proper in his case? Should someone else have seen this coming? Should he had been able to continue to practice law? Those and other moral questions will certainly run through your mind as you read this work. For the most part, Facing the Wind is a gripping and engaging work. My only complaint is that Salamon spends much more time than necessary focussing on a support group that Bob and Mary belonged to. She details the lives of the members of the group and the problems they encountered with their children. I realize that the group was the way Salamon connected with the story in the first place, but the sections concerning the support group could have used a little editing. Despite that one drawback, this is an interesting and thought-provoking work.

Rating:
Summary: Shame on Salamon and the NYT Book Review, too!
Review: Let me say I adore Julie Salamon's writing. The Devil's Candy was an awesome book.

And I adored the first half of this book which was engagingly written and exhaustively researched. The stories of the women in the group and their children were touching.

But something happens after the deaths of the Rowe family. The book becomes a compendium of Robert Rowe's attempts to become a lawyer again...and the whole Colleen section was just maddening. She comes off as completely unlikeable and we're never quite clear what she sees in this man who took out his whole family.

This book is a mess...and not worth recommending at all.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Stays With You
Review: Not many stories, real or imagined, grip a reader like Julie Salamon's "Facing The Wind." I knew where the story would end - or so I thought. The murder is revealed on the book jacket, but the tale really lies in whether or not Bob achieves forgiveness and repentance. Does he deserve the second life he finds with his wife, clearly a damaged soul herself? What responsibility is shared by the doctors who released Bob and failed to monitor his intake of psychotropic drugs? How can we, The Moral Reader, react when a man who murders his family, including a helpless, disabled boy, declares he cannot feel remorse since he was mentally disturbed when the act was committed but at the same time declare his love for the dead?

This is a difficult story to read, and it is equally difficult to let it go. Salamon paints a portrait of a family that showed one face to the world, and another to itself. How many of us do the same? The sad details of Mary's clothing when she died and the aiming of the blows to prevent pain linger as the reader struggles to decide what kind of man Bob really is.

There are questions left unanswered in this telling, but the final image of a young girl who adores her daddy reveals the complex nature of the emotion humans call love. Just how much of love is forgiveness?

I disagree with the readers who state that interviews with Bob were required. Salamon gathers her facts via those who knew Bob best. The story is not really about Bob, but about those around him. Their perception, as the saying goes, is the reality.

Salamon captured my attention with "The Devil's Candy," and I look forward to more of her literary non-fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Stays With You
Review: Not many stories, real or imagined, grip a reader like Julie Salamon's "Facing The Wind." I knew where the story would end - or so I thought. The murder is revealed on the book jacket, but the tale really lies in whether or not Bob achieves forgiveness and repentance. Does he deserve the second life he finds with his wife, clearly a damaged soul herself? What responsibility is shared by the doctors who released Bob and failed to monitor his intake of psychotropic drugs? How can we, The Moral Reader, react when a man who murders his family, including a helpless, disabled boy, declares he cannot feel remorse since he was mentally disturbed when the act was committed but at the same time declare his love for the dead?

This is a difficult story to read, and it is equally difficult to let it go. Salamon paints a portrait of a family that showed one face to the world, and another to itself. How many of us do the same? The sad details of Mary's clothing when she died and the aiming of the blows to prevent pain linger as the reader struggles to decide what kind of man Bob really is.

There are questions left unanswered in this telling, but the final image of a young girl who adores her daddy reveals the complex nature of the emotion humans call love. Just how much of love is forgiveness?

I disagree with the readers who state that interviews with Bob were required. Salamon gathers her facts via those who knew Bob best. The story is not really about Bob, but about those around him. Their perception, as the saying goes, is the reality.

Salamon captured my attention with "The Devil's Candy," and I look forward to more of her literary non-fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Shameless Drivel
Review: This book was a huge disappointment. I felt little knowledge and insight into the killer's mind. Many people have medically involved children and do not commit such horrific acts. The bludgeoning of his family had to some from a source of fierce anger and the cause of that wasn't explained at all . His attitude towards the crime was totally unbelievable.