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Groundwaters Publishing, LLC
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Volume 6 Issue 2
Page 8
Page 8
Full disclosure – I am a friend of Jennifer Chambers, and have been for several
years. In her first novel, Learning Life Again, she tells a poignant story of doubt,
struggle and redemption.
Just imagine. You wake up and have no memory of anyone or anything. Who are
you? Who are these people that are keeping you trapped in this white prison?
Who are the strange people that come to talk to you? You can’t speak. You can’t
walk. You can’t feed yourself. Nothing. That is the nightmare of TBI – traumatic
brain injury. But with time, and a lot of work, and a little luck, some people can
‘learn life again’.
Maggie has been through it all and came out the other side a whole person, but
thirteen years later, she still carries internal baggage from her injury. After being
fired from her job, she returns to Maple Grove with doubts about herself, only to
face challenges from all directions.
Maggie is asked, by the doctor who saved her life, to mentor a newly injured
teenager, and she has to confront all the fears and memories that still worry her.
Sarah is a seventeen year old who has no one who cares about her, no memory of
her life, and a long road of therapy and work to build herself a new reality and a new
life. Maggie is drawn into Sarah’s recovery.
Maggie’s father, not knowing that he and his wife would be killed in the accident
that hurt Maggie at age 15, had set up a challenge for her on her twenty-ninth
birthday – to build and run a business that will be an asset to the community, or lose
her inheritance. This revelation is a surprise to Maggie and she is about to turn 29.
She is attracted to Will, and he to her, but says he is not ready to make any long-
term commitments. But she does not give up.
Her best friend Drea, who stood with her during her therapy and kept in touch over
the years of Maggie’s traveling and experimentation with life, is now spiraling into
her own depression and desperately needs a friend.
Over the course of the few weeks that the book covers, Maggie learns that she
has strength to share. She is truly a whole person, with love, time and experiences
that can help others heal. That is true strength.
Jennifer Chambers has captured the anxiety and self-doubt as well as the
recovery and redemption of all her characters. It is a story of challenge, both
mental and physical. Her descriptions are rich and fill all the senses with an
understanding of place and time. You are with the characters every step of the
way, even when some of the steps are taken with the help of a walker, or are on the
arm of a friend. You learn to know these people, care about them, and respect the
effort that is put into doing the simplest of things that most of us take for granted.
And we wonder, “Would I have the strength to do what Maggie did?” . . . and what
Jennifer Chambers did. She lived through it and then wrote about it so the rest of
us would understand the everyday struggle of TBI survivors. If she had not told me
of her accident and recovery, I would never have known. It’s not Jen’s story. It is
fiction. But there are people like Maggie, and Sarah, and Jen in our world, and
through this book, we now know them. And we are better people for it.
years. In her first novel, Learning Life Again, she tells a poignant story of doubt,
struggle and redemption.
Just imagine. You wake up and have no memory of anyone or anything. Who are
you? Who are these people that are keeping you trapped in this white prison?
Who are the strange people that come to talk to you? You can’t speak. You can’t
walk. You can’t feed yourself. Nothing. That is the nightmare of TBI – traumatic
brain injury. But with time, and a lot of work, and a little luck, some people can
‘learn life again’.
Maggie has been through it all and came out the other side a whole person, but
thirteen years later, she still carries internal baggage from her injury. After being
fired from her job, she returns to Maple Grove with doubts about herself, only to
face challenges from all directions.
Maggie is asked, by the doctor who saved her life, to mentor a newly injured
teenager, and she has to confront all the fears and memories that still worry her.
Sarah is a seventeen year old who has no one who cares about her, no memory of
her life, and a long road of therapy and work to build herself a new reality and a new
life. Maggie is drawn into Sarah’s recovery.
Maggie’s father, not knowing that he and his wife would be killed in the accident
that hurt Maggie at age 15, had set up a challenge for her on her twenty-ninth
birthday – to build and run a business that will be an asset to the community, or lose
her inheritance. This revelation is a surprise to Maggie and she is about to turn 29.
She is attracted to Will, and he to her, but says he is not ready to make any long-
term commitments. But she does not give up.
Her best friend Drea, who stood with her during her therapy and kept in touch over
the years of Maggie’s traveling and experimentation with life, is now spiraling into
her own depression and desperately needs a friend.
Over the course of the few weeks that the book covers, Maggie learns that she
has strength to share. She is truly a whole person, with love, time and experiences
that can help others heal. That is true strength.
Jennifer Chambers has captured the anxiety and self-doubt as well as the
recovery and redemption of all her characters. It is a story of challenge, both
mental and physical. Her descriptions are rich and fill all the senses with an
understanding of place and time. You are with the characters every step of the
way, even when some of the steps are taken with the help of a walker, or are on the
arm of a friend. You learn to know these people, care about them, and respect the
effort that is put into doing the simplest of things that most of us take for granted.
And we wonder, “Would I have the strength to do what Maggie did?” . . . and what
Jennifer Chambers did. She lived through it and then wrote about it so the rest of
us would understand the everyday struggle of TBI survivors. If she had not told me
of her accident and recovery, I would never have known. It’s not Jen’s story. It is
fiction. But there are people like Maggie, and Sarah, and Jen in our world, and
through this book, we now know them. And we are better people for it.
| Review: Learning Life Again By Vicki Sourdry |