Review, Blog Tour & Giveway: The Sitting Swing by Irene Watson

THE SITTING SWING begins as Irene Watson enters Avalon, a 28-day recovery center. In the following chapters, Irene relays, through flashbacks, her troubled and abusive childhood.Born to parents who had already buried their first child, Alexander, their over protectiveness appeared to be an attempt to compensate this loss.

For from the time she was a young girl, she was never allowed to be far from her mother’s side.Irene’s actions also seemed to be measured by her dead brother’s potential. “Why can’t you be more like your brother? was the unspoken reference point by which I was measured.”

A very poignant and telling part of the book was the description of the sitting swing: a swing built up against a rose bush. Any swinging (straying) would result in getting stabbed by rose thorns. “The swing was built so I could be watched and slowly learn that I was to be monitored and cared for without fail.”

The first noted abuse book place when Irene attempted to run away from home. Her mother catches her a quarter mile away, and drags her back home.

“As I walked indoors…she threw me onto our couch, picked me up by my feet and beat my butt red. She was screaming as I’d never heard her scream before. I was screaming as I’d never heard myself scream before. And the beeting went on and on until I could no longer stand and she could no longer hold me up.”

Thus began a legacy of beatings from her mother. Her father would witness the bruises, but never said a word.

Irene continued through school, and high school, and eventually marries a young man, Bob, the most popular boy from her high school.The reader is once again brought back to Irene’s stay at Avalon. Irene is forced to look back at her childhood, and her marriage to Bob, and trace the tracks of her co-dependency. In her journal she writes of her inability to express her needs or wants. It seems as though no one wants to listen. Her thoughts of suicide continue.

Things change when Jean, a woman she recognized from church, arrived at Avalon. This wasn’t Jean’s first experience the recovery center. She returned because during her first stay a lot had been revealed about her life, and her eyes were opened to a number of different issues she wanted to work on. Jean became Irene’s first “Avalon friend.”

By the conculsion of the 28 day period, Irene was able to create a new script for her life. She realized her own self worth and learned that conceeding to other’s wishes did nothing to honor her own worth.

THE SITTING SWING is an incredibly emotional and empowering book of one individual’s journey to self realization. A bit graphic at times, but this was demanded in order for the reader to truly experience the horrible childhood Irene was forced to endure. My only complaint would be that the tale skips from Irene’s childhood and young adulthood right to the “present.” It was apparent that her codepency continued during her marriage, and I believe it would have been helpful for the reader to be able to experience that part of her life. I highly recommend THE SITTING SWING to anyone that is or has experienced codependency.

Irene Watson, author of award winning The Sitting Swing, was born and raised in a tiny hamlet of Reno in the northern area of the province of Alberta in Canada. It was a farming community, mostly settled by immigrants from Russia, Ukraine and Poland during the early 1900s.

Two books that had the deepest impact were Change me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss, and, Lost and Found by Babette Hughes. Reading both books inspired Irene to write about her own life’s journey, from growing up in a semi-abusive home to finally accepting that experience as a path to a spiritual understanding of life. She now shares her story in The Sitting Swing.

Irene is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Irene received her Bachelor of Liberal Studies, Summa Cum Laude, in Psychology from Saint Edward’s University in Austin and her Master of Arts, with honors, in Liberal Studies: Psychology, from Regis University in Denver.

Today, Irene lives beside Barton Creek in Austin, Texas with her husband Robert of 43 years, and their Pomeranian, Tafton; their calico cat from a rescue shelter, Patches; and their rescued cockatiels, Clement and Elgin.You can visit her website at http://www.irenewatson.com/ or her blog at www.irenewatson.typepad.com/irenes_weblog.