When
there seems to be no way out you need Courage to Change.
A
perspective on Sylvie Nickels’s book by author Ian Mathie.
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| Image provided by author |
Paperback: 232 pages, also available in ebook
Publisher: Oriel Press, UK (June 6, 2013)
Reading level: Young Adult / Full Adult
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1782995579 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1782995579 (paperback)
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
Content Rating: General release
As an industrial
psychologist I was accustomed to dealing with many problems people brought with
them to the workplace every bit as much as with problems growing out of the
working environment. A problem which raised its ugly head quite frequently had
many faces yet in each case it was the same problem: addiction. Reaching well
beyond the workplace, addiction is far from easy to deal with and its first and
most difficult challenge is recognition and acceptance by the sufferer.
Often misunderstood
is a subject the very thought of which turns most people off. As a result it is
too often ignored. Nevertheless, we are all potentially vulnerable to it. We
can all learn useful lessons about the pitfalls and what fuels different forms
of addiction if only we take the time to listen or to read about them.
This is one of
the benefits that books like Courage to Change, by Sylvie Nickels
have to offer. The novel offers a great story wrapped a framework of relationships,
situations and problems arising out of one form of addiction, alcoholism. As
the story unfolds it explores all the human dilemmas faced not only by those
addicted, but by their families, friends and those who seek to help them.
Sylvie Nickels
has a great wealth of life experience. She understands human abilities, frailties
and weaknesses so well. This gives her the capacity to express the emotions and
mindset of people in all sorts of social, domestic and working situations in
ways that make her characters so real you feel they could be your own relations,
or you know them personally. Because of this, what seems at first like a
lightweight story draws you in and carries you along, wanting to know what
people will do next and how things will turn out. Her writing is not gripping
in the conventional sense, but it is truly compelling and will keep you reading
to the very last page.
Through the
medium of a touching story she offers a subtle exploration of the many dilemmas
and problems involved in addiction; offering insights that should be valuable
to any parent or person who shares their life with an addictive personality.
Whilst she offers no magic solution to the problems; there isn’t one anyway,
she at least offers hope whilst leaving it to the reader to make their own final
judgements.
Courage
to Change is a most rewarding book that can
teach one a lot about life and human interactions. It also offers a good lesson
to writers in how to convey the feelings and emotions of one’s characters. Here
the players are very ordinary people and yet we come to know them intimately.
That only comes about through very skilful writing and a thorough understanding
on the part of the author of both the subject and the people she is writing
about.
****
Sylvie Nickels’s
other works include an excellent trilogy based on the effects of conflict on
families, using the Bosnian war as its backdrop. She has also written a mystery
thriller based in Finland and a series of travel books during her long career.
Publishing most of her books by her own efforts, she is an author whose work
deserves to be much better known.
****
Author
biography:
Now in the eighties,
Sylvie Nickels has been writing since the age of ten. In earlier years she
wrote numerous travel books, particularly about the Balkan countries and about
Finland, a country she knows intimately and whose language she speaks. Since
her childhood was during World War Two, it is hardly surprising that the
effects of war on succeeding generations should be the theme of several of her
books.
After her
marriage she embarked with her husband, geographer and explorer George
Spenceley, on a series of adventures including canoe trips down the Danube and
the Mississippi rivers, the latter resulting in her acclaimed book The
Big Muddy.
When advancing
years curtailed her travelling, Sylvie turned to fiction, producing four
intriguing books. Most recently she has tackled the subject of addiction as
life has brought me into direct contact with the effects of alcoholism at many
levels. Whilst Courage to Change was originally aimed at the Young Adult market, its
subject gives it much wider appeal.
Recently
widowed, Sylvie Nickels lives in north Oxfordshire, England, and is still
actively writing.
Amazon
Author Page: Sylvie Nickels
****
Ian Mathie is
the author of the African Memoir Series,
currently comprising four volumes: Bride Price (January2011); Man
in a Mud Hut (July 2011); Supper with the President (October 2011); and Dust
of the Danakil (March 2012). He has a fifth volume, Sorcerers
and Orange Peel, due for release in October 2013.
His books are
available in all e-book formats from www.smashwords.com
and in paperback or Kindle formats from
Amazon. More detail about the author, including interviews, reviews,
biographical information and book details are available on his website www.ianmathie.com.
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more. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #cursescanbebroken
