Sanctuary: The True Story of an Irish Village, a Man Who Lost His Way, and the Rescue Donkeys That Led Him Home
By: Patrick Barrett, Susy Flory / Narrated By: Gary Furlong
Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
Gonna have to say it: NOT what I’d been expecting -AND- coulda been edited better… so >SOB<!!!
Ya know? It’s been a while since we did the Weekly Animals Pick, so I was assuuuuming we had a winner with Sanctuary. I was taken in by the secondary title as it was a kinda: He saves Donkeys (Animals Getting a Helping Hand), and the Donkeys save him (Onwards and tally ho to Animals as Lifesavers)!
Uhm…
It’s not quiiiiite that. And dang it all to heck with the whole Publisher’s Summary deal as, tho’ I've been relying heavily on ‘em for the past several years, they dooo sometimes give a person a bit of a, What We’d Really Like You To Think About This Is… Here, I’d honestly been thinking we’d have an Animal-Loving-Kidlet growing up amongst the rescued donkeys, learning about them to the extent that he became a “donkey whisperer” and then Life with all that could go wrong got in the way. In this case, that young Patrick Barrett signed onto military service and saw and experienced things that would not go away, leaving him isolated, alienated, self-medicating, and in dire need of comfort and open arms. And that he’d find all that through the gentleness of love and acceptance from his donkey friends at the Sanctuary his folks ran.
Well, here’s how it is, see. We’re treated to just what a loving and giving lad he was, bottle feeding baby donkeys, with donkeys as his best friends. Then things progress to difficulties during his school years where learning disabilities and probable ADD, coupled with severe physical abuse from teachers, has him leaving school and joining the Army in a last ditch effort to live a little.
But even before his military service, Patrick was outta control. His grandmother introduced him to alcohol at the age of seven, and from that moment on, he sought the peace and comfort of alcohol as it soothed his restlessness but left him out of control. There are MAJOR mishaps involving drunk driving and wrecking cars and damned near killing people.
Time for a little bit of cultural humility on my part as I desperately seek NOT to judge the society he was born into. I was kinda shocked by the casual alcohol introduction, certainly by the reckless driving where the only time he actually considers he might’ve killed people, or that p’raps he did indeed do something a trifle… off… was when both he and a passenger are drunkenly fighting as the car he’s driving barrels right into a parked hearse from a funeral, casket and body within, mourners on the sidelines.
And then let’s make the drunken mishaps practically all of this book.
Now, I totally get addiction, as good cow did my earlier years screw loved ones over, and I’ve been graced with forgiveness, learned how to forgive by what loved ones modeled to me. So, while Patrick’s challenges and his ultimate redemption are taught, and fraught, and absoLUTEly beautiful?
Man, could this have been edited a bit more tightly, or what? EsPECially as when we get to his military service and all he saw in Lebanon and Kosovo, we’re given only casual snippets to traumatic events. These were not the cause of his alcoholism, but yes they exacerbated the beJESus outta it. But how many times do we really need to hear about how he hit one pub, got loaded, hit another pub, got even more loaded and got into brawls, hit another pub, then wrecked his car(s)?
When we do finally get to his pain, it’s excruciatingly well-written, his actions, his choices. And? His embrace of that second chance, maybe even the third and fourth offered to him, people seeing his honesty and encouraging him. And when a nun sees him, truly sees him and gets that he’s somewhere else, not in the room with others but is experiencing previous trauma? It’s beYONd beautiful how she gathers others around him, anchoring him to a present moment that is filled with compassion, and that safe place he so desperately needs. Plus, the God of his childhood, a judgmental God, is replaced by One of sincerest blessings, a God who gives peace, comfort, Hope. Lovely.
Yet very little on donkeys being the ones to open his heart, offer him opportunities. So see? Nothing to that secondary title.
Now one of the things that makes this a worthwhile little audiobook is stellar narration by Gary Furlong. Tho’ I did indeed find myself jacking up my Listening speed, his cadence and pacing was pretty goshdarned on point. It’s just that I wanted to see What Happens Next, and I wanted to get past Yet Another Car Rolling Over Twice. But Furlong is not to blame for THAT! The man voiced a plethora of people within Patrick’s life really well, and I appreciated that, tho’ he does indeed have an accent, it’s a beeeeautiful Irish Lilt and not something I could not make heads nor tails of. And please note that I WANTED to say “couldnae” rather than could not, but Google told me that’s Scottish, not Irish…!
A nice Listen, a good story, but it just seems like a more deft hand coulda been used to tighten it up, given us a taaaaad less Drunken Escape and a bit more Redemption.
At least there are several donkeys, however. Not the best choice for the resumption of the Weekly Animals Pick, but dude! It can ALWAYS be worse, so I’ll cut m’ losses and get onto another one soon, shall I?
Best wishes to Patrick and his family, and hey! this is a fine ode to a loving set of parents…
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