Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Van Ryn/Cerak: Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

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In April 2006 the Cerak family got note that their daughter Whitney was killed in a terrible car accident.
Meanwhile in the hospital the only survivor, Laura Van Ryn, has to recover from her injuries and a damage to the brain.
While the family Cerak took care of Whitney's burial and learnt how to live without their daughter, the Van Ryn family didn't leave Laura's bedside and watched over her slow recovery.
It takes five weeks for Whitney to voice that the Van Ryns' are not their parents.
The Cerak family learns that their daughter is alive and the Van Ryn family has to learn that their daughter died five weeks ago.

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Maybe I am the exception but I thought the book was terrible and found myself skipping whole chapters, especially those where again and again the talk was about God. For someone who does not consider herself a Christian the whole Bla is difficult to stand, too much bore and alienating. I skipped almost all of the printed blog entries about the praising overdose.
I wanted to learn about the families, not God. About emotions and the difficulties they were going through. Instead I found their life wrapped in a bubble about God. It certainly would have been nice to have known that up front. I wouldn't have read the book then.
Of course what the families went through is terrible and saddening, there is no doubt in that but a more down to earth perspective would have helped the whole story.

In the end I should have known because just a few months and way before the paperback was released the book lay on B&N bargain table for a few bucks.

Rating:

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Howard Books; Second Printing edition (March 25, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416567356
ISBN-13: 978-1416567356

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