Autobiography Review

One Really Deep Breath
by Gary Van Nguyen
ISBN-10: 0974092223
Review by Heather Froeschl

In today's world, most of us are just as likely to get our news from the internet as from the television or newspaper. We look up our weather, our horoscopes, our job possibilities, (and book reviews) online. Many of us run our businesses strictly over the web. And many of us find our connections, our relationships, our friends, and peers through the click of a send button.

Is this reality? Are the people we "meet" online for real? Are the communities we are part of online as real as the ones in our backyards? Can they be more real than the physical? How do we know what is truth and what is someone's idea of a gag? I don't know. Do you?

Gary Van Nguyen began an online diary a few years ago. This is where you write what you want to, like a normal diary, but it is available for people to read online. He kept the journal going for two years. "One Really Deep Breath" is his compilation of that diary.

You might wonder how much people really share about themselves in these online diaries. Well, if Gary is any indication and he is being truthful, then it is possible to share a whole lot. You might feel that you intimately know the author. His diary readers did. I still question whether or not we can ever really know someone with whom our interaction is only through postings and emails, but that is my own opinion.

The book leads the reader through two years of Gary's overcoming depression, and a good deal more of life's lessons. His mission is to help people in the same situation. He likely will achieve that goal. I think though, that the most important thing is what he learned through his own writing.

Here is a book that will make you laugh, certainly, make you think, likely, and leave you appreciating the fact that we don't always know the people we think we do, in every way. It is a different sort of book...very unlike Bridget's Diary or The Diary of Anne Frank, but in a way it shows the male perspective of life and demonstrates how our current times and lifestyles have influenced everything we do. A unique and interesting read.