From shooting heroin in the slums of Staten Island to boating and building beach houses in the Bahamas, Slipping Into Darkness Blinded by the Light is a story of trials and triumphs, despair and faith, pride and shame. Once you embark upon this spiritual sojourn, as you laugh and you cry, one thing’s for certain-you won’t want it to end.
At the tender age of five, Melanie knew her mother’s impending marriage was a mistake. She spent the following eight years in a home filled with domestic violence, which resulted in her becoming an adolescent heroin addict.
In rehab, she shared life experiences with fellow residents. As her head cleared and her heart opened, she began to discover, “We’re all the same-Black, White, old, young; it didn’t matter. We were all the same.” Thus began Ms. Lewis’s love affair with life-the pleasure, the pain, and the lessons. Her story transcends all racial, gender and social divides.
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent memoir….
Eartha Watts Hicks, February 1, 2018
I must say, this is one of the most tightly constructed, brilliantly written memoirs that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It’s shocking, her ordeal(s) are shocking, but the author is so eloquent and matter-of-fact about what’s she’d suffered through that as a reader, I found I could relate and empathize without feeling beaten up by the suffering.
At best, the author was beaten up by her experience but never defeated. She still managed to see the good in everyone, regardless of how much trauma they’d introduced to her life. Lewis puts her character flaws on display here, admitting to being stubborn and willful, but also demonstrates, using her own life as an example, that God is and we are never too far removed from his grace and mercy.
Eartha Watts Hicks
Author/Publisher/Editor
EIC-Harlem-World-Magazine
“In her debut memoir, Slipping into Darkness Blinded by the Light, Melanie Lewis shares her journey from the obscure shadows into the glow of light and life. Through her complex challenges she reveals the remarkable human spirit and reconnects to the universal strength that we all share. Melanie balances this passage with humor, love and faith.”
Dr. Juanita Kirton
“If you’ve ever been knocked down and felt you just couldn’t get up and keep going, a dip into Melanie Lewis’s life-affirming memoir will refresh and revitalize you. Ms. Lewis suffered many childhood traumas. She lost her way to drugs and felt her life slipping away. But then she found new hope and strength in her faith and in her friends, and she set herself on a course of adventure that continues to this day. Her story transcends all racial, gender, and social boundaries.”
Timothy Sheard, author of the Lenny Moss mystery novels
“Melanie E. Lewis’s memoir is a candid exploration of desperation and darkness along the path to redemption and light, culminating, at last, in the sense of fulfillment that continues to mark the author’s life. ‘It has become clear how everything and everyone has had a part in making me who I am,’ she writes. ‘The journey is one continual learning experience, a process of evolution.’ Lewis shares her remarkable journey with readers on their own quests for that elusive self-love that makes all love possible.”
Karen M. Cirincione, Ph.D.
“Slipping into Darkness; Blinded by the Light, hums with buoyant energy as it sweeps headlong though Melanie Lewis’s challenging, sometimes dangerous, and finally joyous life. You won’t put it down.”
Sally Ryder Brady, author of A Box of Darkness