Casey's thoughtful account of the formation and integration of her 24 separate personalities. Diagnosed in 1981 as a multiple personality by therapist Wilson—whose case notes intersperse Casey's narrative—Casey initially resisted that finding, but slowly acknowledged her many selves. Among them were brilliant scholar Jo, worldly art lover Isis, and people-pleasing party girl Renee, with these relatively enviable personalities coexisting next to others who were childish, frightened, and suicidal—created, as multiples always are, to deal with abuse: in this case, from a raping father and a cold, demanding mother. Reconstructing the origins of the personalities forms the heart of Casey's touching story. As depicted here, the characteristics and motivations of all the personalities are straightforward and affecting, although Casey does not succeed in giving each an individual or even realistic voice. Rusty, a boy personality charged with placating Casey's father, talks like someone cut from an Andy Hardy film, while Renee seems decidedly down-to-earth for a self-described flirt. Of high interest also are Wilson's notes, which will probably appall orthodox psychiatrists as they detail how she broke every treatment rule in the book to heal Casey. Wilson and her husband, for example, always commingle their lives with that of a patient, and became in Casey's instance surrogate parents to all the personalities. The trio's first session together typifies the intimate therapy style: Wilson's husband ambled into the office, shucked off his jacket, and sat on the floor. A compelling psychological odyssey offering unique insights into a nightmare world.
Pub Date: May 29, 1991
ISBN: 0-394-56842-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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