A heartfelt and informative guide to recovery with searing literary recollections.
A woman surveys strategies that she used to recover from the lingering psychological trauma of sexual abuse in this self-help book.
In this book’s opening pages, Bossarte, an arts teacher with a doctorate in developmental neuroscience, writes that she was molested as a child by her grandfather, which left her with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and relationship difficulties. Her book focuses on her healing journey from high school onward and provides practical advice for others struggling with similar issues. She emphasizes the importance of one-on-one therapy and discusses ways to vet prospective therapists, recommending that one should look for a person who specializes in sexual abuse and ask lots of questions about methodologies and fees. She also recounts her positive experiences in group therapy and explores ways to promote well-being outside of counseling, including exercise (she’s partial to yoga), meditation, her hobby of “contemplative photography,” nature walks, scented bubble baths and candles, and creative projects to give voice to one’s expressive instincts. Other chapters address the knotty issues of whether and how to confront an abuser—Bossarte says that she never confronted her grandfather, who died when she was a teenager—or others who might have known of the abuse but didn’t intervene. She also discusses how to come out as a survivor to family members and partners. A final section reprints Bossarte’s poetry about abuse, and an appendix offers readers lists of self-help books, meditation instructors and apps, and survivor support groups.
Bossarte’s practical advice is often well tailored for abuse survivors, as when she notes that certain yoga poses can be triggering, as can some turns of mind while meditating. At times, though, she provides commonplace advice: “You can connect to your creativity through journaling and writing…through art classes for drawing, painting, pottery, or jewelry making, woodworking, sculpting, or blacksmithing!” The author also presents a rudimentary tour of alternative forms of therapy, such as qi gong, acupuncture, and chakra healing. The book has its greatest impact when it focuses on Bossarte’s personal experiences. She doesn’t dwell on details of her abuse, but her depiction of her resulting state of mind is deeply felt and riveting: “I remember hating my body and my lack of control as hormones raged during my teen years. Hating the changes that drew his eyes like flies to a corpse….I dared to dream of using my hands to kill myself, end it all, and set myself free.” Bossarte’s poems are especially hard-hitting and evocative, whether they’re taking readers into her grandfather’s house—“Opening door creaks, / feet shuffle on wooden floors. / A monster creeps into the room, / intent on devouring my innocent heart”—or relating the psychic damage of the abuse: “My childhood: a watercolor painting, / your touch smudged and blurred, / your intentions acid on my canvas.” In these passages, Bossarte conveys a cathartic sense of disaster and loss that makes her story of resurgence feel all the more resonant.
A heartfelt and informative guide to recovery with searing literary recollections.Pub Date: April 22, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Passion for Life Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
None
Does glasnost mean the Cold War is over? Le Carre, the ultimate chronicler of Cold War espionage, ponders that issue (and others) in an up-to-date spy fable: his drollest work thus far, his simplest plot by a long shot, and sturdy entertainment throughout—even if not in the same league with the Karla trilogy and other le Carre classics. British Intelligence has gotten hold of a manuscript smuggled out of Russia. Part of it consists of wild sociopolitical ramblings. But the other part provides full details on the USSR's most secret defense weaponry—which is apparently in utter shambles! Can the UK and US trust this data and proceed with grand-scale disarmament? To find out, the Brits recruit the left-wing London publisher Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, who has been chosen—by the manuscript's author, a reclusive Soviet scientist nicknamed "Goethe"—to handle the book's publication in the West. Barley's mission is to rendezvous with Goethe in Russia, ask lots of questions, and evaluate whether he's for real. . .or just part of a KGB disinformation scheme. Barley—a gifted amateur jazz-sax player, a quasi-roue in late middle age—has few doubts about Goethe's sincerity; he shares, with increasing fervor, the scientist's Utopian dreams of nth-degree glasnost. But the mission is soon mired in complications: CIA interrogations (with lie-detector) of Barley; venal opposition from US defense-contractors; and Barley's intense—and dangerous—love for Goethe's friend Katya, the go-between for his USSR visits. Narrated by a Smiley-like consultant at British Intelligence, the story, unwinds in typical le Carre style (leisurely interrogations, oblique angles), but without the usual denseness. The book's more serious threads—debates on disarmament, Barley's embrace of world peace over the "chauvinist drumbeat," the love story—tend toward the obvious and the faintly preachy. Still, Barley is a grand, Dickensian creation, the ugly Americans are a richly diverting crew, and this is witty, shapely tale-spinning from a modern master.
None NonePub Date: June 9, 1989
ISBN: 0141196351
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989
Has heart but lacks craft and efficiency.
In Ferguson’s debut novel based on a true story, a driven businesswoman takes extreme and innovative measures to combat prejudice and propel her career.
Though qualified and proactive as a real estate manager, Rhoda, an African-American, finds herself frequently shut out of high-level positions due to racism even in 21st-century Manhattan. In one instance, she’s hired during a phone interview only to be told once she arrives at the Upper East Side office that the broker position has been filled. Yet when she returns disguised with a blond wig and lightened skin, calling herself GeeGee, she’s hired on the spot. In a similar fashion, Rhoda ignites her struggling hair extension side-business. Following advice from a peer that she will need to have a white “face” of the company, Rhoda calls on GeeGee. Eventually, with the support of the NAACP, she testifies and wins a victory affirming that companies are forbidden to ask for race identification when hiring and they may not look outside of skill and experience to fill a position. The conceit of this novelized “true story” is intriguing, although which parts are based in fact and which in fiction is unclear. The dialogue-heavy prose doesn’t have much fluidity, often due to preceding dialogue tags in which a sentence ending with a comma introduces a paragraphlong quote. There’s a similar problem in the novel’s exposition, particularly due to the use of passive voice, which slows scenes down. Toward the end, Rhoda falls in love with a white man who initially knows her only as GeeGee. Once that episode is resolved, Ferguson describes the wedding night with the sensual expertise of a seasoned erotica pulp writer. For the preceding pages, though, another edit could help shape the spirited tale.
Has heart but lacks craft and efficiency.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481744447
Page Count: 240
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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