There Is Always Sunshine Behind the Clouds

Book excerpt: A young family's dramatic escape from the tyranny of their Communist regime, the struggle of starting their new life halfway around the world in a country where they could not speak the language, and the hilariously funny situations they got themselves into because of it...are some of the chapters in which the author takes the reader for a non-stop emotional roller-coaster ride. In one chapter you will shed tears of sympathy for the dying mother who is desperately attempting to hang on to life by facing into the sunshine -- sitting in a window day after day -- while struggling with her guilt feelings of being an invalid burden to her teenage son. That's what gave this book its title. In another chapter you will find humour in how a foreigner has to cope with what is an everyday routine for those who were born in and grew up in the United States. Throughout the chapters the author of the story is amazed at the freedom and the opportunities his new country provides, until one day he realises that there is another side to this shiny coin, and it is corroding rapidly. Or is corrupting a better word for what is going on in this once pristine society?Had family values changed with the advent of both parents working, or is the lack of discipline at home, in school, and in life to be blamed? Is there too much freedom in this country? -- a statement he once made and was promptly chastised for by his contemporaries. Despite life's hardships, he always had a positive attitude, because he remembered his mother's last words: Son, there is always sunshine behind those clouds Indeed, there is, and the clouds keep moving. They are not permanently glued to the sky.