A Review of David Gibson's The Other Side of Reason

I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program in return for an honest review.

On September 18, 2013, an OC Transpo bus collided with a VIA train in the south Ottawa, Ontario, suburb of Barrhaven. The driver—a substitute for the regular driver of this route—failed to reduce his speed as passengers shouted for him to stop. He plowed through a crossing guardrail and hit the ongoing train. A Transportation Safety Board hearing subsequently determined that the driver might have been distracted by on board cameras and thus failed to stop at the crossing. The driver and five other people, including students from Carleton University, died that day. (Royalties from the sale of this book go to two memorial funds set up by Carleton University for the students who were killed in the crash.)

David Gibson was one of the 83 passengers on board the bus that day. His life changed forever as he began his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with its flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of both anger and survivor's guilt, and the helpless realization that life can change in a minute: he cannot protect his wife and four children from potential tragedy.

The Other Side of Reason consists of Gibson's journal entries—largely poems—over a three-year period as he struggles to deal with PTSD. As his journal entries indicate, it is an up and down struggle with no linear path to recovery.

This book is not intended as a factual account of the events that occurred that day nor as a professional guide to the prognosis and treatment of PTSD. What Gibson hopes to achieve in this book is to raise awareness of PTSD and the constant struggle it involves for those who must battle it. As he states in the Preface to the book:

My hope is that by sharing my experience of the accident I can also inspire people who survived the accident to have the courage to speak out loud and not suffer in silence or in shadows. I never thought I would ever experience such trauma or the after effects that continue to interfere with my life and my family’s life. In the end, I realized that I needed to find some meaning from what happened.

The Other Side of Reason will no doubt hit a deep, personal chord with others suffering from PTSD and help them understand that they are not alone.