The End is Near

Author: Harry Ramble

Publisher: Ebb Press, LLC

ISBN: 9780981650227

Hope is a necessity for normal life and the major weapon against the suicide impulse. ~ Karl A. Menninger

Nathan Huffnagle, a man in his forties, is just a plain unhappy person. He has never married, has no kids, and has the most boring of jobs. Nathan becomes sick and tired of this so-called life he has made for himself. After his mother dies he returns home to take care of business. Not just the depressing business of settling his mom's affairs, but finishing his, literally. Nathan has decided to end it all, because of the crappy hand life has dealt him, but after a time in the neighborhood tavern, he decides to take someone with him on his little death trip. Really what is driving his man to go to such a final solution to his problems? Could something in his past that seems to haunt him all his life be the reason? Is it really found in the journal he wants to leave behind for all to read?

Instead of this book being a “who done it” I would call it a “how come” novel. How come this man has made the decisions he has made?

Written in the first person this book, I found, to be full of emotion and feeling. This is especially felt in describing the shocking and sickening details of the many events of bullying that the main character had to endure. The author uses directness and boldness to get across the seriousness of how being belittled through someones life can affect a person, as they become damaged adults. The bullied sometimes become at odds with the ghosts of their past, as Nathan did in this story. Mr. Ramble is ingenious in allowing the reader get inside Nathan's head—to feel his pain and sadness; he took a complex situation and made it simpler to understand by expounding the details. I can not say enough on how truly great and eye opening this book was for me—highly recommended!