SOMEBODY’S SON
By Val & Bev Savage
Independent Publishing Network.
312 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 788 088 701
Somebody’s Son is an unusual book and it’s hard to simply categorise – it’s partly biography, partly ministry memoir, partly family history. Written by Val and Bev Savage (Bev is now busily retired in Bournemouth, but was formerly General Secretary of the FIEC) it tells the story of Bev’s complicated and painful childhood and how, later in his life, he and his first wife Val investigated and came to understand it.
It’s a hard book to review because the circumstances in which the book came about are also very painful. Bev’s wife Val was the driving force behind their investigations into his past and it is her voice that speaks for most of the book. Yet Val died of cancer in 2006, almost in the middle of the story told in the book.
Very personal
The remainder of the story was put together by Bev. Even more than in a normal biography/autobiography, this makes for an incredible personal work. The stories told testify to a rich work of God’s grace in Bev and Val’s lives through many challenges and trials. The experiences recounted were encouraging and a rich blessing.
However, the reader is left to work hard to understand and get hold of the basic narrative. The facts are not always presented in a way that is easy to understand and, with two simultaneous stories being told – one about the past and one about how that past is being investigated, the timings of both stories slip away from the reader.
The work that God has done in Val and Bev’s lives is a great testimony to his power and glory, but I can’t help wishing that this book could be reworked to better present all the good that is here.
