Release Date: November 1, 2011
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages/Format: 336 (Paperback)
Genre: Literary/Religious Fiction
Source: Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
My Rating: D (View Scale)
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He might be young, but Colm already recognizes the truth: that he’s sick and not getting better. His mother, Cathleen, fiercely believes her faith will protect her ailing son, but Colm is not so sure. With a wisdom far beyond his  years, Colm has come to terms with his probable fate, but he does have one special wish. He wants to meet his father who abandoned his beloved mother before Colm was born.

But the quest to find the dying boy’s missing parent soon becomes a powerful journey of emotional discovery–a test of belief and an anxious search for proof of heaven.

One Sentence Review: The premise has a lot of potential, but the execution falls far short of what I was hoping for and expecting.

In-Depth Review

¡WARNING! This review contains major spoilers. They have been clearly marked in bold so that you can avoid them.

I received my copy of Proof of Heaven through the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, so despite the fact that it was published by a general market publisher, I fully expected it to conform to basic Evangelical theology. I was actually quite excited at the prospect of a distinctly Christian novel coming from a general market publisher. Alas, it was not to be. While I can appreciate any book that prompts readers to ponder the subjects of suffering, death and the afterlife, Proof of Heaven left me wanting in more ways than one.

Assisi, Italy

The central character of this tale is Colm (pronounced Column), a seven-year-old boy suffering from random episodes of cardiac arrest with no apparent cause. After years of searching for answers, his mother, Cathleen, discovers Dr. Gaspar Basu, an electrophysiologist-cardiologist who is finally able to diagnose Colm’s condition. Unfortunately, it is progressive and terminal. With the clock ticking down, Cathleen turns to her Catholic faith for a solution, jetting off to Assisi on pilgrimage in search of a miracle with Colm and the agnostic Dr. Basu in tow. Colm confides in Dr. Basu that he does not believe in God, heaven or miracles since he has not once experienced anything but black nothingness in the seven times his heart has stopped beating, but he refrains from telling his mother so as not to discourage her.

Sendhil Ramamurthy

My two favorite characters were Sean, Cathleen’s alcoholic brother, and Dr. Basu (who, incidentally, I immediately pictured as looking like Sendhil Ramamurthy). I think Sean’s backstory and baby steps toward redemption were the best parts of the book. Unfortunately, I had a very hard time connecting with Colm and Cathleen. Her frantic search for a miracle was hard to understand considering the physical toll it took on Colm. I also had a really hard time liking Colm. He came across as a bit of a know-it-all.

The writing was decent, though there were times when it was too sentimental for my taste. As an interesting side note, Hackett based many elements of the story on her own life. Like Colm, she suffers from Malignant Neurocardiogenic Syncope Disorder and she has flatlined nearly a hundred times. Her son, also named Colm, collapsed and stopped breathing when he was an infant, and it was this experience which led her to start writing Proof of Heaven in the first place. Cathleen’s relationship with Dr. Basu is also closely based on Hackett and her husband. I think that perhaps being so closely tied to the story may have been the reason for the overly sentimental tone.

Proof of Heaven asks a lot of excellent theological questions, such as:

• Does God exist?
• Is heaven real?
• What happens to us when we die?
• Do miracles really happen?

::SPOILER SECTION BEGINS HERE::

The ending is where I really got tripped up. Colm’s heart stops and his mother embraces his dying body.

He saw what his mother had spoken of for so long. At the moment of Colm Francis Magee’s final mysterious death, he saw arms reaching for him, enveloping him in an unconditional loving embrace. He felt the warmth of her touch, and he knew it would be all the love he ever needed. And he too smiled as he thought of it: she had been there the whole time.

Heaven was right there in front of him.

-Page 288

Here is my problem with that paragraph: It elevates human love above God love. Whether intentional or not, what the author is saying here is that whether or not a loving God exists doesn’t really matter in the end, as long as we have people who love us as much as Colm’s mother loves him. And that is what bothered me the most about this book.

After this Colm reunites with deceased relatives, including the father he never met. He then has an out-of-body experience where he witnesses his mother and Dr. Basu huddled around him.

Colm let her love him, falling further into her body, loving her as he had never loved her before. She had found heaven before him, and she made it easier for him to find. All he had to do was make the trip. And it was all so beautiful. It was all proof. All the proof he ever needed.

Proof of heaven.

Then, like a sudden spark that arrives from a singular, unknown source, Colm opened his eyes and he saw.

He saw it all so clearly.

-Page 291

This ending was both abrupt and quite strange. I’m assuming what Colm saw “so clearly” was heaven in the traditional sense, which is interesting to me considering the fact that Colm is an atheist. I say interesting because I understand that in the Catholic church, children are not believed to be responsible for their choices until age eight, which Colm falls just short of, meaning that he would go to heaven regardless of what he believed. As an Evangelical, I believe that we can’t arbitrarily set an age of accountability since the Bible does not specify one. So it bothers me that Colm is assumed to have gone to heaven. I would have preferred it if the author had left that part ambiguous (or changed the ending entirely since, as I said before, the whole thing seemed very strange to me).

::SPOILER SECTION ENDS HERE::

There are parts of this book that I enjoyed (Sean’s backstory, Dr. Basu’s relationship with Colm and Cathleen, the deep theological questions it raises). But ultimately those parts were overshadowed by negative aspects like the sentimental writing, Cathleen and Colm’s unrelatable personalities, and the bizarre and theologically bankrupt ending. I would not recommend this book to a friend.

About Mary Curran Hackett:

Born and raised in Danbury, Connecticut, Mary Hackett has traveled extensively and lived in various places throughout the U.S., but her favorite place in the world is home with her kids, husband, and stacks of books. She received an MA in English Literature from the University of Nebraska and is an adjunct English professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Other Reviews: BookNAround | The Lost Entwife

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