A powerful, inspirational memoir about overcoming childhood trauma.
A child abuse survivor recounts her lifelong path to recovery in Traub’s debut memoir.
“Examining our story allows us to determine how our future chapters evolve,” writes the author, as writing allows one to “move from a bystander to an active participant.” Despite the book’s relentless optimism, it does not sugarcoat the author’s horrific childhood trauma. “Caught in Evil’s Chasm,” Traub, her sisters, and her mother were trapped for years inside a home with her stepfather, Don, whose alleged physical, emotional, and sexual abuse is bravely detailed here. The author also confronts the lasting feelings of loneliness, fear, anger, and shame she carried with her for decades. The book’s poignancy, however, lies not so much in Traub’s pain, but in her recovery and desire to help other victims “find their God-given purpose through and beyond their pain and suffering.” Indeed, while her stepfather’s menacing presence looms over each chapter, the book also centers on those who made a positive difference in the author’s life: from a high school vice principal’s gesture of nonjudgmental acceptance to the support given to Traub by her sisters, children, and husband. The author’s Christian faith is also a central theme in her recovery, and the book abounds with references to God (who, the author writes, “turned my mourning into dancing and filled me with joy”). Inspirational Bible verses and Christian-themed poetry emphasizing the themes of redemption, forgiveness, and unconditional love occur throughout the narrative. Non-Christians will still find immense value in the book’s intimate perspective on the conflicting emotions that confront abuse survivors as well as its insider account of recovery groups and professionally licensed therapists. Written in an unconventional style, Traub often mixes timelines, as the past is retold through flashbacks intertwined with stories from her present life. This technique, along with blending first and third person, may make for a disorienting read, but it also provides a space for Traub to reclaim and write her own story.
A powerful, inspirational memoir about overcoming childhood trauma.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9798822907720
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
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