I love Henri Nouwen! Collaborating with Brown, I felt this book was so different than his others but had the same huge impact on me. This was a beautiful read on dreaming, risk taking, and spirituality.

Dutch Catholic Priest, Spiritual thinker and author Henri Nouwen left us in 1996. Now more than 25 years since his death, comes this new book which was crafted from previously unpublished writings. This is a great read, whether one is familiar with Nouwen's other writings or not. It begins with his true story rescue through a hotel window after Nouwen suffered a heart attack. It parallels that story along with his intimate following of the Flying Trapeze Rodleighs whom became his dear friends. Nouwen even travelled with them over the years and developed a deep relationship which often teaches him more about the God he served, shared and loved. He drew parallels from the friendship and shared his faith with them through how he lived his life as their true friend and part of their community. The work is captivating in both the lessons learned about the hard work of the circus acrobats as well as the spiritual conclusions. Please do yourself a favor and read it. An advance copy was made available to me from NetGally and the publisher with no commitment of positive commentary. I also purchased my own copy because this one is a keeper.

"Flying, Falling, Catching" is the final unwritten book by Henri Nouwen, narrated and interwoven by Carolyn Whitney-Brown. It is a fascinating tale of lessons learned on a trapeze. Some much is gained through Henri's story of meeting and befriending the Flying Rodleighs. Lessons on friendship, fear, support, but the over-arching lesson is 'Trust.' This book is a great addition to anyone's library.

Whitney-Brown writes about Nouwen's experiences with a trapeze group he became friends with called The Flying Rodleighs. Nouwen reflects on the community of the trapeze group and how that community includes intimacy, trust, and freedom. I had never read anything by Nouwen or on trapeze groups and I love how Nouwen pursued friendships with the group and how they impacted his life.

Henri Nouwen is well known for his spiritual writings and his practical and thoughtful commentary on what constitutes a spiritual life. Having left a life in academia to work with persons with disabilities, he strongly associates the life lived in community as his spiritual calling. During one of his breaks from L’Arche, Henri goes to see a circus and becomes entranced by the trapeze act, The Flying Rodkeighs. He follows the troupe and becomes great friends with its members as they take him into their “family”. Henri decides to write the story of the Rodleighs and takes copious notes about his relationship with the troupe.
However, he never completed the book. Now his friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown has completed his work interspersed into her account of his heart attack and being transported through a hotel window by the EMT’s assisting him.
An interesting insight into Henri’s personal life, his quest for meaning through community, and his fascination with this circus troupe whose performance encapsulated the flying, falling, catching that exemplifies the Christian life.
Recommended for fans of Nouwen.

Flying, Falling, Catching
An Unlikely Story of Finding Freedom
by Henri J. M. Nouwen; Carolyn Whitney-Brown
Pub Date 08 Mar 2022 |
HarperOne
Biographies & Memoirs | Christian | Nonfiction (Adult)



I am reviewing a copy of Flying, Falling, Catching through HarperOne and Netgalley:


During the last five years of his best-selling author Henri J. M. Nouwen became close to The Flying Rodleighs, a trapeze troupe in a traveling circus. Like Nouwen’s own life a trapeze act is full of artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness. He wrote about his experience in a genre new to him: creative non-fiction. 





In Flying, Falling, Catching Nouwen’s friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown presents Nouwen’s unpublished writings, framed from , the true story of his rescue through a hotel window by paramedics during his first heart attack. In this book readers will learn that Nouwen’s was a spiritual risk taker who was transformed through his engagement with these trapeze artists, as well as his participation in the Civil Rights movement, his life in community with people with intellectual disabilities, his personal growth through friendships during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and other unexpected encounters.





If you’re looking for a unique book at some of the previously unknown sides of Henri Nouwen let me recommend Flying, Falling, Catching, to be released in March.2022.


I give Flying, Falling, Catching five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

It’s fascinating account of this beloved authors experiences in the circus: as he flew, fell and was caught. It’s also a seriously good interweaving of many of his other writings, exploring the metaphor of how spiritually we all fly, fall and are caught.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

It was only in the last five years of famed spiritual author Henri J.M. Nouwen established a friendship with The Flying Rodleighs, a trapeze troupe in a traveling circus.

On the surface, it would seem to be a most unusual diversion for the serious and studied Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic Priest, theologian, author, and writer known for his approach to subjects such as social justice, psychology, pastoral ministry, and community.

My own introduction to Nouwen was during my own seminary years, his book "Adam" a required reading experience during one particular pastoral care course and a book that recounted Nouwen's experiences providing support for a young man during Nouwen's years living in Daybreak, a L' Arche Community.

For the record, I was not a fan of "Adam" (the book, not the person of course).

Yet, there was something about Nouwen that intrigued me and I began a years-long feeling of kinship with the richly human, amazingly vulnerable, yet stunningly intelligent author.

with "Flying, Falling, Catching," Nouwen and Carolyn Whitney-Brown have helped me understand why.

Nouwen, who passed away from a massive heart attack in 1996 at the age of 64, comes to life in a rather exhilarating way thanks to Whitney-Brown's ability to weave together a tapestry of Nouwen's own writings about his years-long, late life friendship with The Flying Rodleighs and a creative non-fiction approach to Nouwen's rather unusual rescue during his first heart attack that rather magnificently captures the kind of deep, soul-searching spirituality Nouwen was experiencing during these years and a soul-searching that was very likely satisfied through his almost child-like friendship with this small trapeze troupe that embraced him, his curiosity, his enthusiasm, and his friendship.

Whitney-Brown, a real-life friend and peer of Nouwen's, captures with honesty and simple beauty the wonder of Nouwen's journey whether writing about his engagement with his flying trapeze friends, his joining the march in Selma, his living amongst people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or his friendships formed with those impacted by the AIDS epidemic.

Whitney-Brown beautifully captures Nouwen as a joy-filled, almost child-like spiritual risk-taker who found a freedom in his later years as his carefully structured life increasingly became one of unpredictability, learning, vulnerability, and even failures.

It would seem as if nearly everything that bothered me about "Adam" is addressed in "Flying, Falling, Catching," a book that generously reveals Nouwen's own previously unpublished writings, mostly about the Flying Rodleighs, and helps us understand how these unique experiences were essential to Nouwen's later in life spiritual growth and personal healing.

I'm quite often not a fan of these types of posthumous collections, yet "Flying, Falling, Catching" feels like essential Nouwen and feels like a book that Nouwen himself would have wanted to publish yet, sadly, his life ended before he himself could find the words.

Quite simply, "Flying, Falling, Catching" is a lovely book in every way.

I found much to enjoy in this book, having been a reader and person of faith who has appreciated Nouwen’s work for some time. I enjoyed the authentic and human exploration of experience and spirituality that is so woven into Nouwen’s writing.

I was introduced to Henri Nouwen's writings in 2003 when I attended a conference on deepening my prayer life. I started collecting his works and read him voraciously. He had a lot to teach me and I was a sponge trying to absorb everything he taught. When this book showed up as a potential book for me to read and review, I jumped on it. I am so pleased that HarperOne chose me to read and review it through NetGalley.

While there are many spiritual truths put forth in this book, this is more of a spiritual memoir than a teaching book. Henri departed this life twenty-five years ago, but the legacy he left behind is one of graciousness, enthusiasm, energy, and depth. There is just no other way to put it. He was a deep man, with faults and foibles, but also a deep abiding love for the God he served.

Much of this book deals with the Flying Rodleighs trapeze artists with the Barum Circus in Europe. On a whim, Henri and his father attended the circus for something to do and that began the five year friendship Henri had with the Rodleighs. Henri got to see the behind-the-scenes life of these performers and even take part in sharing life with them. In turn, they gear him up to take a ride on a trapeze. The description of his joy in being on the swing was just priceless--something on the order of that if he didn't have ears, his smile would have met in the back of his head.

Carolyn Whitney-Brown dealt with some of Henri's struggles with dignity and compassion, and she put together the book that Henri wanted to write about the Rodleighs. Throughout the book, she describes his last days and the care that was taken by the emergency personnel when he had his initial heart attack. This is a poignant, funny, spiritually deep book that will keep the reader engaged from beginning to end. I learned much, but most of all I learned to love the man himself for who he was. He lived his life as well as he felt he could. He took the time to learn from those around him, even when their communication skills are non-existent. He was always ready to share with those who needed something--a word of encouragement, a friend to stand beside them, or even a meal. He was an extraordinary, yet ordinary person, who lived his life as well as he could.

Five Stars

HarperOne and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.