All the King's Horses

By: Barry Milazzo



Picked up this book randomly when my mum and I were at Sengkang library.  It was a rather thick and heavy book though, so I ended up not borrowing a physical copy of it.  Instead I downloaded the digital version on the Overdrive App.  Took awhile to read through the entire book, KN mentioned that she skimmed through it and after a couple of days we had a discussion on the book.

Goodreads gave it a rating of 4.9/5 and I must say that Barry wrote it in a way that made it very easy to follow and understand.  Plus it felt very real, his brokenness and the impossible situation.  The book mainly centred upon his life as a father of a son who suffered from brain damage due to severe allergic reactions from vaccinations as a toddler and how his entire family (his two other kids and his marriage that ended up in divorce) was affected due to that incident.  In fact, coincidentally as I was halfway through the book, I learnt on FB that the baby toddler of a uni friend had also suffered from brain damage in a tragic near-drowning accident and passed away subsequently after staying in a coma for several days. A story that was simply just in a book, suddenly felt shockingly more real as it happens around me.

Without dwelling on all the negatives (lest it becomes overly depressing), I will highlight 3 main takeaways from the book:

Hope

"Hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." - Romans 8:24-25

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1  

The book left me with the revelation that hope is even more crucial precisely in situations that are completely hopeless. It is when things are desolate and bleak, that's when we truly need to hope. Hope happens when we are holding out for something that we cannot see.  And what we are holding onto is that there's some good in this world.  Things in this world that mattered.  And they are worth fighting for.

Love

"The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." - 1 Timothy 1:5

Loving others.  Simple yet not always easy.  Often too quick to succumb to selfish whims.

Grace

"If a man has a 100 sheep and 1 of them goes astray, will he not leave the 99 on the hill and go out to search for the 1 that is lost." - Matthew 18:12

I'm not sure how to explain this one, but you could probably try to read it yourself.

In a nutshell, an excellent hopeful (albeit slightly sad) read.