Richard Von Hippel's "Not Again" Exposes the Raw Tragedy, Courage of Everyday Life

New York, NY, August 31, 2012 --(PR.com)-- “Not Again” by Richard Von Hippel tells the story of Iris, a young woman setting out in life in her city. It is a story superbly told, devoid of any sense of pity or sense of sanitising the reality of her struggle, as the author shapes an heroic figure out of a pathetic existence. In many ways, it is as if the paintings of Lowrie came alive and the figures went off to their various homes and vanished into the hidden flow of life.

Iris Ann Stewart was born into a better off than average family in 1951 at St Lukes Hospital, Bradford, West Yorkshire and enjoyed a happy early childhood until she was sexually assaulted at the age of eleven.

This incident marked the beginning of a life of such incredible misfortune and bad luck that by the time she met her therapist in 2005, she’d survived being stalked by her violent ex-fiancé, a teenage pregnancy, being disowned by her father, forced into marrying a violent, alcoholic, gambling addict, the premature death of her mother from a burst aneurysm (brain haemorrhage), a second violently abusive marriage to a man who was later imprisoned for tying up a prostitute with wire before raping her at knifepoint, long term disability from her own burst aneurysm, multiple strokes, seizures, a tumour on the bowel and if it hadn't been for the doctors and surgeons who helped she would have lost her left foot, left leg and her life.

And yet for each devastating life crash that would have destroyed a lesser spirit the iron will of Iris Ann Cullimore drags her damaged but undaunted from the wreckage and sends her bravely onward, with her zest for life, fun and laughter undiminished.

But the key to the originality of this book is not in the series of events, appalling as they are, or in the raw courage of Iris. It is in their presentation, as if this volcano of disaster was a norm of daily life behind closed doors, a suppressed tale of everyday struggle, that human existence is closer to the Book of Job than we imagine or let ourselves believe.

The Author does not get personally involved. He imposes no moral code or moral inference. His approach is purely and powerfully descriptive. This leaves the reader with the strange and often overwhelming sense of the impassiveness and indifference of fate- or the heavens- in the face of human plight.

Richard von Hippel authored this groundbreaking work “because Iris wanted to encourage others never to give in when facing any form of adversity, whether it be stroke, serious illness, rape, stalking, disability, domestic violence, or even deep disappointment at a failed endeavour. Her message is that as long as you keep on fighting and as long as you seize every opportunity for fun and laughter - no matter how brief - you may be damaged but you can never be beaten.”

“Not Again” is a rare book. It is difficult to find an equivalent work. It is one whose echoes will remain somewhere in the deep of the mind long after the reader finishes the last page.

Not Again is available on Amazon (Kindle)

Courtesy/review copies of Not Again are available from Richard von Hippel, in the following formats: mobi, Epub and pdf

Contact:
Richard von Hippel
notagainiris@gmail.com
21 Reevy Crescent,
Bradford,
West Yorkshire,
UK
Ph: +44-1274-411563