The Book of Karma
Author: Shelly Marshall
List Price: $12.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1880197995
Publisher: Gylantic Pub Co (October, 1994)
Sales Rank: 818,405
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 1 out of 5
Shallow, self-absorbed, and pitiful
This book promises to tell of the ultimate betrayal - and it does: that of a parent betraying a child. Ms. Marshall asks, at the beginning of The Book of Karma, "Is there a clue, any concrete clue to explain what happened between us?" I'd say, "Absolutely. About a million of them."Shelly Marshall would have been better off consulting Dr. Spock instead of spirit guides, psychics and evangelists. Contrary to what Ms. Marshall would have us believe - and no matter how she glosses over this aspect of her "parenting" (and she does) -- beating a child was NOT acceptable in the seventies. Nor was the kind of verbal abuse she says she dished out regularly.
It's hard to find any sympathy for Shelly Marshall. For someone who claims to be so in touch with her spiritual self, she comes across as shallow (describing everyone, including her child, in physically unflattering ways), and self-absorbed (she's perfected "poor me"). She surrounded herself and her child with violent, abusive people, and, indeed, was violent and abusive herself. Here's one clue, Ms. Marshall: Children learn what they live.
Ms. Marshall says Karma tried to turn herself into her mother. I'm not surprised. The author put herself so high up on a pedestal it must have been an impossible reach for a little girl's arms.
I can only hope that Karma, as an adult, has learned that she wasn't a "bad seed," as her mother so willingly believed. That sometimes, no matter how much we wish it weren't so, children are born to parents who are either barely able to take care of themselves, or only able to take care of themselves. And, especially, that no matter what anyone told her as a child, and no matter what anyone is telling her now, she should have been treated like the blessing every child is. From the very beginning - a blessing and a gift. Especially that.
Rating: 5 out of 5
This is a change your life book - it was for me!
Don't really know why I chose "The Book of Karma" from the Amazon website - it looked interesting? I didn't know the author or really what it was about - when it arrived here in Australia - I started reading and couldn't put it down! I guess somtimes in life, a book comes along, that speaks right to the heart of my own dramas - and this was certainly one of them. If you ever have to struggle, with a deep sense of betrayal, and find yourself desparately hanging onto your Spiritual path -whatever that means to you - then this book will speak to you too. I lent it to a friend of mine in the fellowship and she gobbled it up too! Still addicts at heart - though in recovery - sometimes you realise God sends you the help, that you need, from the most unlikely places! I loved the dreams, I loved and feared the people, I loved the struggle and I loved the honesty. THANK YOU SHELLY.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Daughter of Destiny-and a child shall lead them through hell
The bad seed bloomed and the flower is carnivorous! That could be the bumper sticker for this intense and entertaining story of a gorgeous child whose values go astray and the caring,loving Mom who becomes a victim of her own virtues and a victim of the lack of virtues in her daughter. Actually every one ends up suffering for their actions or lack of action in a story that seems too frightening to be true. I couldn't put it down from the time I opened the cover. Looking for that silver lining kept me turning the pages until I finished, and there is a silver lining. This is ultimately a story of denial and discovery, and brings the meaning of the philosophy of karma to a new level of understanding. If you are familiar with AA, or NA, or any other 12 step organization, you will be utterly amazed that the author maintained her own sobriety in the face of heart piercing betrayal. If you are a parent, you will shudder and pray that your child escapes the pain of "something missing" in their psyche. And you just might pay a little more attention to those "oh, that's just kid stuff" behaviors. I sincerely hope that no one anywhere ever has to deal with the pain and insanity that this family lived with day in and day out. It is truly a miracle that both Mom and daughter and everyone close to them survived, learned and moved on. A testament to love, The Book of Karma offers hope. Read it!
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