Title: Peace in Trials: The Untold Story
Author: Tarren Clark
Publisher: Independently published
ISBN: 979-8640023404
Genre: Non-Fiction/Memoir
Pages: 60
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Pacific Book Review
In Peace in Trials: The Untold Story by author Tarren Clark, an entrepreneur recounts his struggles with racism, mental illness, and legal battles, while maintaining a positive attitude based in Christian belief.
Tarren Clark was raised in a family atmosphere that included both love and incidents of undeserved abuse. His parents were active in the Pentecostal Holiness religion in St. Louis, Missouri. When he was five he was shown a frightening movie, Left Behind, containing the warning that in order to avoid punishment, you must be saved. The little boy was “scared as hell” and rushed home to pray, committing himself to Christ, and as he notes, immediately making himself a target for Satan.
In high school he joined the Christian Science congregation, whose teaching stresses that healing comes from God, not through man-made medicine. But in his freshman year in college at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, he had a mental breakdown, exhibiting a form of mania so distressing that his mother, a nurse, had him committed to hospital, where he was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and treated with standard processes and medications that caused great weight gain.
Still he thrived in college, a popular figure who became a Resident Advisor in his sophomore year and organized numerous well attended parties and field trips. He began to plan and establish several dynamic business propositions that revealed a true gift for entrepreneurship, making contacts with some famous people and hiring a staff of consultants. But his mental problems persisted, resulting in several arrests and even a stint in prison. He attributes some of his legal issues to the reasonable perception that some people could not believe that “a 20-year-old black man could have so much power and influence.”
Clark’s memoir, though brief, raises many important issues for the thoughtful reader. His religious views as a Christian Science follower were ignored by legal and medical sources, and very often, as he describes his experiences, it seems clear he was more sinned against than sinning. Despite the adversities he has endured, he is able to conclude that God gave him many talents, allowing him to make valuable and caring contacts and find a variety of employment opportunities. At the time of writing his recollections, he is head of his own new business consulting firm, and hopeful that his experiences as depicted here will provide inspiration for readers to move beyond the tribulations they may be facing.
