A Life Gone By

Wow! So according to the author's comments, part of this was based on reality and yet people still want to comment on whether the story was believable or not.

The comments I agree with the most is the lack of description between the birth of the children and their marriages and subsequent lives. More details would have improved the story. What did Lucy do? Did the author retire as a policeman and have any other career? Did his son James never want to seek out why Jim Sr was the donor? As far as the main character being a "wimp" or not, this seems like such an overused argument in this forum. I think the author gets to "own" the main character and decide how that character acts. Hey, totally free child raising for life! Good deal! No involvement with a child that he really did not know.

I liked the story just found it lacking in details at the end.

I just didn’t like it. I read the comments OVERCRITICAL made and agree with just about all of them. I would like to add a couple of my own. First, this “The kid needs a liver (or kidney, or whatever) transplant and you’re the only one who can save him” theme has been done to death, and done better than this, in my opinion. Secondly, to respond to the comment that ‘this guy couldn’t catch a break’, the guy couldn’t catch a break because he constantly allowed people to walk all over him, and then he apologized for getting under foot. He was a freakin doormat. A wimpy little man who brought a lot of his misfortune on himself. Not all, certainly, but a good part of it. One star.

I love stories like this.. many readers look for anger, hate, revenge, etc. I enjoy stories in which I can relate to in a happy way. While the hurt had was felt, the saying "alls well that ends well" applies... thanks - this is a fiver

I didn’t really care much for this story, true or not. Sure, the guy had some bad experiences in life but some of them were of his own making. The “wife swapping” ended up costing him his marriage, and his wimpiness kept him from having any kind of substantial relationship with his own son. But I think the thing that irked me the most was the fact that Jim continued to communicate with Bill and his two whores even after the three of them had stabbed him in the back. It’s hard for me to generate any sympathy for a man who would let other people screw up his life so badly without him even attempting to make them pay a little price for it.

They treated him like shit and he just accepted them not allowing him to be James' dad. He owed those assholes nothing. He should have got a lawyer and established paternity. James would have been better off with a real dad and not that wimpy Bill. It was not in his son's best interest at all. James would have seen what a normal family was like and not the weird trinity he had at home. He probably never had a healthy relationship with what he was raised with.