The Wisdom of “Les Miserables”

Ron Hansen, author of the bestselling novels, Exiles, Atticus, Mariette in Ecstasy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Nebraska and nonfiction works, including my own personal favorite, Faith and Fiction, says about The Wisdom of Les Miserables:

“Alfred J. Garrotto incorporates the text of Victor Hugo’s
Les Miserables and creates a workbook out of the lessons Jean Valjean
taught through his life . . . . I particularly admired the author’s pithy answer
to the truth of fiction. I’ll be ‘stealing’ that from him in the future.”

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“Alfred J. Garrotto has succeeded brilliantly in distilling the wisdom of a nineteenth century classic novel and using it to illuminate our twenty-first century lives. This part autobiography / part spiritual handbook seems to me a classic in its own right, one that stands on the shoulders of another classic.”

Poet Tom Savignano, Time To Ponder, A Time to Sing and Prayers and Reminiscences

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“From the opening sentence in the Introduction to the final words of ‘Never Shall I Forget,’ Alfred J. Garrotto takes us along a path to becoming fully human, fully alive, and spiritually awake. And  he does it in a profoundly simple, nurturing, and caring way that make us want to reaffirm our commitment to the best possibilities hidden deep within each one of us. The path to self-mastery, personal discovery, risk taking, self-reflection, re-decisioning, and life building is all there in one small but spiritually powerful book. The Wisdom of Les Miserables is more about the human heart and its potential to live a noble and deep vision than it is about the wisdom of fictional saints from bygone eras.  I will carry this book with me from now on as a companion in those moments where I must once again encounter myself to outgrow myself.  If you are at all serious about the quality and value of your life and defining your own deep and noble vision, you owe it to yourself to get this book and use it.”

Ray Newkirk, Chairman of The Systems Management Institute, Founder of The Newkirk Group

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