The concept of this book intrigued me - a self-help book that is woven around fiction. However, I felt it didn't quite live up to its premise. It was slow in parts and seemed to try to deal with too many issues at one time.

The premise of this book sounded really good. Eric Newborn is a disillusioned self-help author who lost his wife and becomes a recluse. Then one day, a woman shows up on his doorstep, a fan looking for the author who disappeared, and suddenly Eric has to face his loss and the doubts of his belief system.

This appealed to my love of human behaviour. But in the end, I ended up struggling to read it. It started out fine, but I felt the author was trying to sell me the idea of the law of attraction.

Also, the characters fell flat with staccato dialogue that after a while felt unnatural. I wanted to love this book but it failed to move me the way I thought it would.

No longer in print. The concept sounds interesting but the writing was less than compelling, perhaps it is a little too cerebral for most of us.

This was an ok book, but I didn't connect with it like I thought I was going to. It didn't go far enough. Self-help books need a bit more umph, and this just didn't have it.

Another tome with no real connection.

Sadly, I had actually forgotten that I even started it, being so long ago.

Eric Newborn is a disillusioned self-help writer and widower living alone with his female German Shepherd named Ralph. "I didn't know, when I thought I knew it all, that I would join the chorus of askers," he says at one point in the book. Sam Leslie who comes looking for him is one of those askers. Her arrival and their subsequent adventure are the catalyst for Eric to finally tackle writing the book that he has promised the lady in the yellow dress he would write ages ago, The Book of Why.

Interspersed in the book are sections of his previous self help texts and talks. He spoke strongly about the law of attraction among other things: what you put out into the universe is what you get back. And this is one of the things that the other askers puzzle over so hard. Why is it that someone who does good and puts out good or is innocent as is a young baby can still have something bad happen to them? (Don't read it looking for a definitive answer to Why.)

Also throughout the book there are pieces of his life from when he is young through his marriage with Cary that help to explain first his belief system and then the disillusionment with it.

The book is beautifully written. It will linger on your mind afterwards. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

The book was OK. I found it a bit strange and unnatural, to be honest. It was too disjointed for me. I skimmed through the rest to see if it got any better and for me, it didn't. Maybe it was my OCD.