Counterpart

Rorie Smith

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

A decorated World War Two hero and a beautiful Thai lady who has suffered for twenty five years with Parkinson's disease are both dead. They are my father and my wife. This is a memoir of their lives. It is a love story, a story of adventure, a comedy and an homage. There is gambling, a gun, a bizarre manuscript. It is an attempt, by means of fiction, to be true to the spirit of who they were. It is also an attempt to preserve their memory for generations future. Because if we forget those who have gone before us we forget our history. And if we do not know our history how can we know ourselves? Counterpart is also an acknowledgement that there are as many different ways to see a life, or to write a memoir, as there are stars in the sky.

See the Tan Tan Books website for more information on Rorie Smith.

Review by Nigel (300914) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
Counterpart is a memoir with a difference as the writer interweaves fact and fiction to tell the story of those people in his life he has loved and lost, almost a ‘last man standing’ reflection on life and what it all means to the individual.

Rorie has lost those nearest and dearest to him, his sister, his mother, his father and his wife. As he shifts through the photographs and memorabilia we share his memories of his wife, Supin and his father, the ‘Bluffer’.

Supin suffered from Parkinsons’s Disease and much of the book deals with the affects this had on their lives and how they dealt with it, adjusting as the years went by. In contrast the Bluffer appears to have been a formidable man of presence who walked life’s path to the beat of his choosing.

I really enjoyed Counterpart, it is a wonderful collection of anecdotes and stories that go some way to sharing these two lives with the reader. A lovingly written work in both the metaphysical and literal sense you take away from it that life is to be lived, both the ups and the downs… I certainly did.

For every copy of the book sold Rorie will donate £1 to Parkinson's UK.
Nigel (30th September 2014)