Review: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

Synopsis

Benjamin Benjamin was at rock bottom. Homeless and down to his last penny, enrolling on a short night course in the fundamentals of care-giving seemed the smart thing to do. But nothing in the manual could have prepared Ben for Trevor, a sarcastic teenager stuck in a wheelchair. And that's assuming Ben read the manual properly in the first place...

The first rule of care-giving is Be Professional. So Ben probably shouldn't tell Trevor why his wife Janet is divorcing him. He probably shouldn't mention that he contemplated suicide last night either.

The second rule of care-giving is Don't Get Emotionally Involved. So Ben definitely shouldn't pack Trevor into the back of a campervan and drive hundreds of miles through the desert so he can patch things up with his father. Especially when Trevor's mother has absolutely forbidden it. Especially when an epic road trip like this could go so disastrously, gloriously wrong...

Funny and tragic, this is the story of an unlikely friendship and a man and a boy's journey back to life.

Review

"I was broke when duty called me to minister to those less fortunate than myself, so maybe I'm no Florence Nightingale. And maybe in the light of all that happened with Piper and Jodi, I'm not qualified to care for anybody."

The Revised Fundamentals of Care giving is a life lesson in appreciating the simplest things in life, in believing in hope and finally a story about a man shrouded in guilt looking for a way out of his own head. It is centered on Ben, a caregiver walking through life remorseful, filled with regrets. Ben, a once stay at home day with a happy marriage and two beautiful children is at his lowest point somewhere between sadness and delayed depression. He gets a job as a carer for a smart-arse, quick witted boy and together they embark on a road trip across America to see the boy’s father with whom he has a difficult relationship. Along the way there is a birth, a teenage girl with attitude, unpalatable food and questionable motels.  

 

Ben is a sorrowful character, immersed in depression, he wishes and hopes for a better tomorrow where his wife won't hate him and his kids play with their granddad on a sunny day in June.  Instead he is faced with a bleak future without his children or his wife. Ben recounts throughout the entire book his previous life describing the domestic home as stills in a picture frame, he gazes at them knowing that he can never get back those moments of sitting in the park with his children and his wife. We learn early on that his children are dead and he blames himself and it’s almost as if he can never forgive himself.

 

Lyrical almost, the story draws parallels between his life now and his life then, capturing a soft, centered musical fleet of emotions, moments in life painted as a long forgotten memoir. The characters are real and the dialogue is superb. I began to question whether Ben would ever find happiness and the end scene where Ben has a heart to heart with his ex-wife we are given  hope that he will finally be happy. With the death of his children, Ben might never find complete happiness however there’s hope and hope is all we ever have.