About the Book
Following a nasty bar brawl, John, a twenty-eight-year-old man,
follows a close friend's advice and begins keeping a journal.
He's recently divorced from his wife, Debbie, and he hopes the
journal will provide a tool with which to make some sense of his
brief, failed marriage and to determine why he is so emotionally
challenged. As a therapist specializing in behavioral issues, he
knows he has to pull his own life together. If he tells people
to clean up their own lives, modify their thoughts, and learn
new, more appropriate behaviors, he knows that he's got to step
up and follow his own advice.
Early on, he realizes that his mother, the curator of a
gallery that specializes in steel art and other nontraditional
works, has largely shaped his thoughts and actions. But just how
much can he blame her for his current state of affairs? Soon the
words in the journal are flowing easily and quickly. When
painful thoughts are no longer avoided and dreams provide fuel
for his writing, the journal takes on a life of its own. Will
John discover the reasons for his dysfunctional situation? Can
keeping the journal help him improve his life?
Book Review
of Journal
According To John by Kirkus Discoveries
A therapist grapples with his Oedipal complex.
Unlike the Gospel
according to John, which centers on the most transformative
figure in the famous apostle’s life, Keen’s evocatively titled
debut novel tracks John, a therapist specializing in behavioral
issues who tries to better comprehend the impact of the most
troubling figure in his life: his mother. When, at 28, he finds
himself unhappily divorced, brooding and uncharacteristically
engaging in bar fights, John finally takes a friend’s advice and
begins examining his behavior by keeping a journal—which he
initially views as an “in-your-face, black-and-white
confirmation of [his] shortcomings.”
The novel chronicles a
four-month period in early 2006 during which John faces the
harsh reality that witnessing his mother’s sexual dalliances
with a number of men as a child has hindered his ability to
achieve true intimacy with others as an adult. It’s also spawned
an undercurrent of rage against the mother he has never
confronted nor forgiven, an alluring woman eloquently described
as having a throat like “an elongated stem holding the beautiful
fruit that was her head,” a “hard, ebony upper body” and
“incredibly sensuous, elegant hands that had seen and done a
lot.” Therapist John repeatedly
wonders why the proverbial “physician, heal thyself” command
isn’t working for him, lamenting, “If I know it, why can’t I use
it?” And at another, “How do I let go of everything that is
hanging up my life, when all I know how to do is hang on for
dear life?” Still, the premise and execution is intriguing.
A…….. compelling look at the emotional complications in a
mother-son relationship. —Kirkus Discoveries
Book Review
of Journal
According To John by Apex Reviews
Official Apex Reviews Rating: 
Fresh off a divorce from a marriage that barely lasted
two years, John soon gets into a nasty bar brawl, leaving
him much worse for the wear. Increasingly alarmed by his
disastrous tendencies, his cousin, Maya, suggests that he
begin keeping a journal, regularly documenting his thoughts
and feelings. In so doing, she hopes that he’ll come to a
greater awareness of precisely what motivates him to come to
the various self-destructive decisions that he makes.
John
complies with Maya’s request – albeit begrudgingly – and he
initially scoffs at the notion that any attempts at
self-analysis will yield fruitful results. As time goes on,
though, he is enlightened to the full depths of his
conscious and self-conscious behavior – chief among them the
compulsions that stem from his strained (to say the least)
relationship with his mother. Ultimately, his journaling
takes on a life of its own, revealing long-suppressed pain
and emotional scarring that he can – and will – no longer
choose to avoid…whether or not it ultimately leads to the
spiritual and psychological healing he so sorely needs,
though, is all but guaranteed.
In
Journal According To John, author Sheryl Keen has
penned a powerful, insightful treatise on the complicated
delicacy of the human condition. Though John’s particular
dysfunctional behavior emanates from a specific source, his
general life story is representative of anyone who has
suffered emotional damage over the course of their lives. As
such, Keen takes the reader on a vicarious journey through
the standard cycle of pain, damage control, assessment, and
ultimate reconstruction – with which we are all familiar on
some level. Regardless of how the damage is done in our
lives, our reactions to it are often identical, and Keen’s
adept portrayal of John’s journey through self-analysis –
however personal it may be – skillfully displays that.
Edifying and entertaining, Journal According To John
takes the reader on an eye-opening sojourn through the
depths of the common humanity that unites us all. A
can’t-miss literary treat.
Related Links
Official Website
www.sherylkeen.com
Blog
http://personaljournaling.wordpress.com
Twitter Page
www.twitter.com/sherylkeen
MySpace Page
www.myspace.com/sherylkeen
Journal
According To John