Our old pal and colleague Ericka Andersen is running around in a frenzy this week promoting her new getting-lots-of-kudos book, Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected from the Abuse of Poverty, Trauma, and Mental Illness, the powerful story of the redemption of her husband, Rick, and his emergence from a youth and early adulthood of relentless abuse. This being the official publication date, we celebrate with her (and Rick) by drawing some attention to what is truly a remarkable and inspiring story. You can read an excerpt of the book on NRO.
Among the book’s praise-bestowers is Jim Geraghty, who has this to say about Leaving Cloud 9:
A lot of us might instinctively want to turn away from stories like Rick’s — heartbreaking twists of fate that bring a child into an environment of poverty, mental illness, addiction, and neglect. But this is a story of the triumph of the human spirit through some of the darkest and most hopeless-seeming moments imaginable. This book is full of hard-learned but much-needed stories and lessons about handling adversity, perseverance through difficult times, and the complicated, contradictory nature of hearts and minds. Anyone who needs a spiritual lift or a reminder of how people are capable of extraordinary changes for the better should read this book.”
And Yours Truly has some praise to offer also:
For many Americans, their greatest challenge is resigning to, or escaping from, the vestiges of a youth defined by deep wounds – the kind found not only in a Dickens’ novel, but in the streets and cul-de-sacs, the bedrooms and kitchens, of every community. We are taught: Suffer the little ones. The reality is: millions instead . . . suffer. But they need not break. Ericka Andersen’s beautifully written Leaving Cloud 9 is a thoroughly honest, wince-inducing, love-instigated account, unvarnished, of how the sorrows relentlessly inflicted on a boy, then carried into manhood, can give way. That there is a resurrection — an emerging redemption from despair and pain to a meaningful life of happiness and worth and true good — to be had for those souls pushed and kicked to the brink of brokenness.
Last week, Ericka visited the Heritage Foundation to discuss her new book. It was a great presentation. I encourage you to watch it, which can be done here. John Miller also has an excellent interview with Ericka on the new (and 200th!) episode of The Bookmonger, which you can listen to here.
This is a spiritual book. It will be a tonic for some, a life-changer for others, a consolation for still others. I encourage you to get a copy of Ericka Andersen’s Leaving Cloud 9.