Blog # 132: A NEW REVIEW OF MY FAMILY MEDICAL DRAMA: DINGS

PUBLISHER: AUTHOR REPUTATION PRESS LLC

ISBN: 978-1649612786

GENRE: MEDICAL FICTION

PAGES: 280

REVIEWED BY:  LILY AMANDA HOLLYWOOD BOOK REVIEWS

 

Dings is a moving unabridged tome that chronicles the life of Sandra Golden and that of her family, and a medical diagnosis on her son that takes them all by surprise. Sandra is managing the home while her husband, Sam, is away on active military duty in Iraq. One day, she is summoned by the principal of the school Conner, her son, attends.

The school principal and psychologist suggest that her son goes through a psychoeducational evaluation to uncover any cognitive or emotional problems that were contributing to his difficulties in class. After several tests and sessions with a neurologist, her fears are confirmed. Her son is epileptic. It was easy to feel Sandra's despair and fear.

The work is a fantastic combination of real-life situations of a medical doctor who uses his scientific knowledge to create a medical mystery story. This exudes both great imagination and creativity. The writing style is gentle and even. I could almost hear the neurologist speaking as if he was near. Peppered with medical terms and valuable information, this is a publication which left me wiser and more aware.

 Author Fogan brilliantly blended contemporary drama and helpful information about epilepsy in an articulate manner. Throughout the story, a reader finds it easy to spell out the symptoms of the condition, the medication used, and how to help an epileptic patient. Uniquely, Dings sheds light on the commitments and sacrifices of healthcare givers in the compassion they show within their line of duty. The patience and concern that Conner's neurologist showed, was admirable.

The text seeks to demystify all the misconceptions associated with the condition and its medication. The author is descriptive, a feature which thrusts the reader into the Golden family. The writer brings out the sacrifices Army wives make for their families while their husbands are away on deployment. I loved how the author did a great job capturing the tone and emotions of the protagonist. A lot of times, the strength of the characters is what builds a story. The characters in the book are well-developed and it felt as though I was part of the story and the turmoil engulfing the family as they sought answers. The book further has a spark of Haiku poetry in its plot and provides for an epilepsy glossary and information associated with it. Overall, Dings was a plausible and solid read and by all means worth investing in. Knowledge, as has always been said, is power!

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “DINGS” is a medical mystery and his first novel. It is a mother’s dramatic family story that teaches epilepsy, now available in eBook, audiobook and soft and hard cover editions.

 

 

Blog #130: “DINGS”, My Family Medical Drama, Got a Favorable Review by U. S. Review of Books

May 20, 2021

 

Dings
by Lance Fogan
Author Reputation Press

 

book review by Boze Herrington

 

"I was suffering and, oddly, it was a shameful feeling... Illness had come to my family. It was going to be up to me to be strong and support my son."

Sandra Golden's life is upended one evening when her son, Conner, suffers a mysterious convulsion. Conner has been behaving strangely at school, blacking out and neglecting to finish his assignments. Sandra and her husband, Sam, are distraught when they learn that Conner could be suffering from epilepsy, a medical condition afflicting three million Americans. Between this and Sam's burgeoning alcoholism—fueled by the post-traumatic stress he suffers as a combat veteran—Sandra begins to fear that her marriage and household are unraveling. When searching the internet for symptoms fails to provide any clarity, she turns to a specialist who offers hope.

Fogan's narrative is tautly written and moves at a brisk pace, never allowing the author's impressive understanding of neurology to obstruct the book's more dramatic elements. However, parts of the book are presented in non-chronological order, flashing back to a few months before the convulsion, which changes the flow somewhat. The exposition is delivered in an accessible and compelling fashion as the reader is pulled forward by the mystery of Conner's condition and growing concern for his fate and that of this family. Although the drama is mostly small-scale, tension is maintained throughout. The description is sparing but evocative, and the plight of the characters is genuinely affecting. The reader is left with the feeling that one has gone on an emotional journey with the family. At times, some of the dialogue comes across as less than realistic, and the characters' reactions, especially at the beginning, can feel somewhat melodramatic. Overall, though, Fogan's novel is a gripping portrayal of one woman's descent into a domestic nightmare.

 ©2021 All Rights Reserved • The US Review of Books

 

This review was written by a professional book reviewer with no guarantee that it would receive a positive rating. Some authors pay a small fee to have a book reviewed, while others do not. All reviews are approximately half summary and half criticism. The US Review of Books is dedicated to providing fair and honest coverage to all books.       Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “DINGS” is his first novel. It is a mother’s dramatic family story that teaches epilepsy, now available in eBook, audiobook and soft cover editions.

 

Blog#100: Official Review: Dings by Lance Fogan

Official Review: Dings by Lance Fogan       

Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-reviewerdiksha.html

Latest Review:

OnlineBookClub.org Forums Books and Reading Reviews and Discussions about Specific Books and Series Other Fiction Forum

Dings by Lance Fogan

 Post by ReviewerDiksha » 18 Nov 2018, 08:26

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Dings" by Lance Fogan.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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This story starts on an unfortunate night when everything changes for the Golden family. Sandra Golden had a happy family. Her kids, Connor and Madison, were bright and playful. Her husband, Sam, was serving in Iraq. Even though she terribly missed him, she knew that, in a few months, he would be back for good and everything would go back to normal. However, before Sam’s return, she encounters some trouble with her son. She gets a call from his school where his teacher reports Connor’s inconsistent and reckless behaviour towards his studies. While this seems like a small problem, bit by bit, it starts to take shape and, after a few months, reveals itself as a monstrous crisis that changes the course of the Golden family’s life.

Dings by Lance Fogan is about a mother who has just discovered that her eight-year-old son suffers from epilepsy. Through the story of the Goldens, it covers a lot of ground about this disease, all the while, educating the audience about it. There are a lot of things that people don’t know about epilepsy, due to which, they tend to form many misconceptions about it. This book shatters such illusions and presents a clear picture, especially about the basic things. It also serves as an education for parents to keep a close eye on their children and take note of every abnormal activity, so that, if there is a problem, it can be diagnosed, and dealt with, as soon as possible. There are a handful of technical terms in the book, and some people might have difficulty understanding them. For this, the writer has added a glossary at the end of the book to give proper information about everything.

When it comes to the audience, some people might think about passing over the opportunity of reading Dings. I would strongly suggest against it. First of all, this book needs to be read because it has a very critical issue as its theme. People should know about the things that this book is talking about, and hence, they must read it. Another reason that might make people refrain from reading it is that they might think that this book is about a disease and hence, will not entertain them. I am glad to tell them that they’d be wrong in thinking this. Had the writer decided to simply write a book about epilepsy, perhaps, even I wouldn’t have read it. Non-fiction, especially about diseases, and those that don’t concern us, rarely catch our attention. Perhaps, Lance Fogan realised this and decided to add a twist to the book.

The writer has very cleverly embedded all the info about epilepsy into the story of a family. The storytelling is quite imaginative. It doesn’t follow a chronological order, and this is what makes it more interesting. At times, it feels like a crime thriller, in which the disease is the perpetrator and breadcrumbs are thrown throughout the story to reveal its identity! In truth, the writing style is the true hero of this novel. The story is told from the point of view of a mother which places its perspective at a very critical angle. There are a lot of emotions, both happy and sad, in it and parents will highly relate to the Goldens. In addition to epilepsy, this book also talks about things like PTSD, the situation of a single mother, and the struggles of raising children. So, there is a wide spectrum when it comes to the things that the author wants to focus on.

OnlineBookClub.org “My rating for this book is 4 out of 4 stars. There was absolutely nothing that I found lacking in it. It had great subject matter, its writing style was highly engrossing and its characters were acutely relatable. It wasn’t difficult to form a bond with the characters as they easily gained our sympathy with their situation, made us like them because of their strength and humanized themselves because of their flaws. It was very educational as well as an entertaining story, and I think everyone should read it.”

  

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “DINGS” is his first novel. It is a mother’s dramatic story that teaches epilepsy, now available in eBook, audiobook and soft cover editions.