As a Man Thinketh...In His Heart

By James Michael Pratt, Evan Frederickson

Reviewed by Lorri Wotherspoon
On 9/10/2009

Heartland Books, PowerThink Publishing, 2020 Fieldstone Pkwy, Ste. 900, Franklin, TN 37069, 2008 www.powerthink.com Fiction Soft back:
154 pages
ISBN-10: 0-9815596-1-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-9815596-1-2 Price: $16.95

Since converting to The Secret way of thinking a couple of years ago — that is, believing that the things you think about most you bring about in your life — I've enjoyed reading things by people who teach this law of attraction in different ways. Hence I was very excited to read this book because of its connection to the James Allen classic on the power of thought, "As a Man Thinketh." Only a few pages into the novel, though, I was frustrated and confused because the author chose to give his main character his own name and occupation. I was pre-occupied through several pages of the book with how much of the story followed the author's real life and how much only pertained to the novel's character.

The story begins in present-day Virginia with our main character, James Pratt, ready to write a novel based on the beginning of a story he finds through an Internet search. He becomes puzzled, however, because when he attempts to find out if this story is old enough to be in the public domain and therefore fair game for his project, he does another Internet search but is unable to find it again. Other searches he and a hired man do outside the Internet also prove fruitless. At last, James has a feeling that visiting the British town of Illfracombe, where the short bit of story is set, will lead him to the identity of the author. But even before he leaves the U.S. to travel there some strange things begin to happen to him.

Most of the book unfolds in the charming seaside English village. Here James encounters mysterious people and the past weaves with the present as he is drawn to a mystical cottage by the sea. While he is caught up in some work he agrees to do in exchange for a free stay at the cottage, he loses track of time and has some explaining to do to his family and friends about his absence. The story then takes him home to Virginia and back yet again to Illfracombe to tie up some remaining loose ends.

I found the book compelling and interesting in some parts and confusing and heavy handed in others. It's clear the author hopes to spread the influence of James Allen's original book, but the parts of this novel dealing specifically with that book were dry and would have been better kept to a minimum in a fiction piece (especially since the whole of Allen’s "As a Man Thinketh" is reprinted at the end of the book). Also, the book was a fantastic accumulation of impossible events and that sort of exaggeration somewhat negates the teaching that thoughts become things—some things maybe, but not thing after thing after thing. On the other hand I liked the reminders that we create our own lives by our thoughts and actions and the story’s encouragement to slow down and find a place of peace within myself.

My primary wish is that the author had made the book more completely a work of fiction. For instance, the main character's best friend has the same name as the author's real-life friend and business partner. And though I can admire the author’s experimental boldness in choosing to write the story this way, I don’t think the gains from mixing the details between his and his characters’ lives outweigh the reader confusion it causes. I believe the story could have been even more powerful had it been told much more simply.


Copyright 2009