As a parent and husband, I can't fathom what a man like that had to feel going through all that. Even the simplest of life's could be worth a fortune to few, and to have all that taken away by fate, it's cruel.
Even if everyone says this is a compilation of clichés, it's a damn good one, and in many cases better than it's sources.
Also the book is a few years old now, maybe it wasn't even that inspired by other works.