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This Is Only a Test
This Is Only a Test | B.J. Hollars
2 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
On April 27, 2011, just days after learning of their pregnancy, B. J. Hollars, his wife, and their future son endured the onslaught of an EF-4 tornado. There, while huddled in a bathtub in their Alabama home, mortality flashed before their eyes. With the last of his computer battery, Hollars began recounting the experience, and would continue to do so in the following years, writing his way out of one disaster only to find himself caught up in another. Tornadoes, drownings, and nuclear catastrophes force him to acknowledge the inexplicable, while he attempts to overcome his greatest fear—the impossibility of protecting his newborn son from the world’s cruelties. Hollars creates a constellation of grief, tapping into the rarely acknowledged intersection between fatherhood and fear, sacrifice and safety, and the humbling effect of losing control of our lives.
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review
violabrain
This Is Only a Test | B.J. Hollars
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Mehso-so

I feel bad giving a so-so rating since I know the author (we used to teach at the same university). But I found the tone annoying (making a big deal out of things that are not big deals, and minimizing things that are a big deal by writing about disasters of which he has no personal experience). All of the chapters were also apparently previously published as individual articles and so it doesn‘t hang together as a book.

review
beeweird
This Is Only a Test | B.J. Hollars
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Pickpick

A collection of essays on natural disasters--tornadoes, earthquakes, and fatherhood. Thoughtful and thought-provoking. I devoured this.

Well-ReadNeck Ooooooh! Sounds good. 8y
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