Book Review: Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a review of the Advance Readers Copy. I’m not sure if they’ll change the preview of the book when it is released in 2012, but if you prefer not to know whether Damon wins his battle against his life-threatening illness, stop reading here.

This was a tough read for me, as I think any memoir about the battle to save a child’s life is likely to be. Knowing how the book was going to end made it all the more challenging. Given that, and the overall experience of the read, I would have given this book about 3.5 stars if I’d had that option.

Doron Weber does an excellent job of bringing his son, Damon, to life in the pages of this book. As a reader I found myself adoring him as much as the people that met Damon during his life, from health care professionals to teachers to actors and producers in Hollywood. I was rooting for him every step of the way.

As for the rest of the family, I felt so much sympathy for them. It was an excruciating and tough battle for all of them. I appreciated all of the research done, questions asked and very active involvement of Doron Weber as he tried to find a way to save Damon. I will say, however, that there was a little too much name dropping and fervent statements regarding his connections to Nobel Prize winners and the like, at least for my taste. But his passion for the project is clear.

For the most part the story is well written and the reader will find themselves dropped into the lives of the Weber family for a while. But it isn’t happy place so if you’re looking for a light read, go to something else now and come back to this one later.