My Real Hue (Book) - 4/13/2018 2:33:04 AM
Interesting story about a man who discovers his true self and the many parts therein and how he comes to accept all of them. I could easily relate to this story. The only negative is that it could have used some better editing, especially towards the end. I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't know who they are and feels outside pressure to be who they're not.
My Real Hue (Book) - 10/8/2017 7:21:19 AM
A powerful read about the ties that bind.
In this tour de force book you will be amazed and saddened at the story of a life a child is forced to endure, taken hostage by a dysfunctional family with an overpowering mother who has a relentless power and will that brooks no interference from anyone!
Meet Danny!
Imagine having his mother who says to her grown son, “If you love me and want me to have a good anniversary, you’ll solicit my friends for money so I can get the gift I want.” Danny reluctantly takes on this suicide mission in raising $1350.
When Danny’s mother receives the money that he was able to collect, he is met with, “You love me?” Crying, his mother continues, “You love me but you won’t shell out a few extra dollars to make me happy for my big day? “…$350?…what kind of love is that?”
With a devout sense of familial duty and responsibility, Danny, bravely carries on in an Olympian effort to please his mother, whose Paris celebration he helped to plan with extras such as obtaining an extraordinary congratulatory 50th wedding anniversary certificate signed by President Clinton.
Danny knows his parent’s party was a grand success, and with eagerness, a few weeks after the soiree, he opens his mother’s letter expecting her thanks and recognition of all that he did to make it special and finds himself stunned senseless to read “Were we wrong to expect (you) to rise to this once-in-a-life-time event and do something ‘special’ and meaningful for us?”
Imagine a lifetime of continual replays on the theme of ‘you’re never good enough no matter what you do’ and how devastating this will be to a child who only wants acceptance and love by the most important people in his life — his parents. But, he never gets the kind of consistent love and nurturing, understanding, and support he longs for, with Danny assuming it is about his unlovability.
The author, Danny, details in a riveting narrative the destructive mothering he lived with that insidiously affected his life and the sober realization his passive father did nothing to protect him. He chronicles his near-miss attempts at liberation from his mother when he moves to a distant state, claims his sexual orientation, finds love, and builds a highly successful career.
But it is his parent’s 50th anniversary party that becomes the final straw and allows Danny to break the bond that is meant to last a lifetime. It was after this party that he realizes without a doubt that he has a sick parent, one who isn’t going to change, who is going to continue to perpetuate drama, pain, and chaos in his emotional and physical world unless he cuts the umbilical cord to the malignant narcissist who bore him.
In order to transition into his truest self, Danny has to emotionally and physically step off from his dysfunctional family and refuse to be manipulated any longer by the crazy-making, soul-crushing histrionics of his mother so that he finally become the person he was meant to be.
The Hue is an amazing odyssey to maturity written by a sensitive, caring son who longed for his mother to validate his very existence and show him love. After bearing with her and giving her every chance to accept him, Danny painfully realizes she is incapable of loving him. This awareness forces Danny to make the heart-wrenching decision of renouncing his relationship with his pathologically superficial mother who relentlessly lies and deceives to prop her self-esteem up and make her needs the priority with nary a thought of her children. No matter how socially unacceptable it is to divorce your parents, to be true to himself and be able to live his life as an adult, Danny made this hardest of decisions which results in building an admirable life, creating a supportive family of his own, and realizing sustained happiness he has never before known.
