****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
"Walking Through Walls" (a memoir), by Philip Smith is an effervescent and bubbly literary elixir for almost anyone. This is truly a fun book to read and yet one that will imprint upon your soul for some time to come.A very unusual story line for a personal memoir, but ironically closely paralleling my own life in so many ways that I found it uncanny at times.This is the story of the author's father, Lew Smith who initially worked as an interior decorator in Florida. His cliental included such notable characters as, Meyer Lansky, President, Carlos Prio, and a host of other notable mentions. However, his "part-time" job was that of a "Psychic healer". Lew Smith was the 1960's transcendental-esoteric and eccentric version of Edgar Casey. In fact, Lew apparently knew Casey's son quite well.Lew Smith was the embodiment of the "Dawning of the Angel Aquarius", complete with love beads, Nehru jackets, and Kundalini enhancing food diets. Despite his eccentricities, Lew Smith was apparently...'the real thing."The author's writing is clean, direct, and refreshingly crisp with cynical overtones that keep the reader turning pages and laughing out loud with almost every turn of the page; and the childhood stories growing up in this unusual environment, would make even the most liberal of today's child-care workers cringe with disgust.Although very comical in many ways the author's father was in fact, a truly gifted healer that affected hundreds of people's lives. From the study of "akashic" records, chakras, pendulum dowsing, to curing "incurable diseases", Lew Smith left a legacy that few will ever follow.Aesthetically, I was not impressed with the jacket design, and at times, the chapter sections were a bit long especially for a working individual (like myself), who found it difficult to put the book down after lunch break! Shorter chapters would have made easier stopping points for the sake of mental reference. There is only one photo in the book, and although it plays an important part in the story's ending, I would have enjoyed seeing a photograph of this amazing individual.This is a truly good story and well written book. It will perk your curiosity, enhance your own mundane world, enlighten your spirit, open your heart, and shine some light into this dark and treacherous world we now find ourselves enveloped within. If, you have an interest in people, life, and philosophy... purchase this book for your library.
