A realistic and disturbing glimpse into an unenviable childhood.
A memoir about a childhood of sexual abuse from debut author Herrera.
Growing up in El Salvador in a fatherless, poor family, young Perto hasn’t had things easy. From working in the fields for little to no money to seeing his mother pregnant again in spite of their economic situation, Perto would likely have faced a difficult life even without the episodes of sexual abuse that end up defining much of his childhood. Beginning with molestation from an acquaintance of his mother’s and escalating to rape and torment from several members of the community, Perto’s story is a horrifying glimpse into the life of an abused child. “When everything started I was seven years old—an innocent boy,” he says. “I was at the mercy of the adults in my life. Those adults, including my mother, were supposed to protect me from abuse, but they did not.” A main tormentor tends to visit Perto’s village on weekends, so the end of the week is dreaded. The explicit descriptions of abuse can be difficult to read: “It felt like a sharp handsaw was ripping the tissue of my rectum.” Attempts to placate the abuser are never successful—“Right away I did what he said because I was afraid of him”—and are met only by abuse from others who learn to view the victim as willing and defenseless. Cries for mercy fall on deaf ears, but how else can a young boy fight against full-grown men who feel no shame in committing unimaginable crimes? With a distinct Christian message, the story of Perto’s salvation from his troubled childhood is one involving lots of prayer and fantastical episodes in nature, including an eagle transforming into an angel ensconced in a rainbow of light. Though the conclusion may lose some readers, the book is notable for its believable downward spiral of abuse. Depictions of many characters prove less than illuminating, particularly as readers might hope for more information about Perto’s village and the people who populate it. Consequently, the story moves quickly, with just enough time to let the horror sink in.
A realistic and disturbing glimpse into an unenviable childhood.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1480154230
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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