ANGEL FINALLY FOUND HIS WINGS

In Hunter’s debut memoir, a man recounts a harrowing childhood.

The author was born in 1960 to Puerto Rican parents living in Brooklyn. He was the youngest of a large clan of 22 children, including those from his father’s first marriage. Hunter’s life, as he describes it in these pages, was very difficult, even early on; for example, he was still an infant when his mother first started showing clear signs of mental illness, including auditory hallucinations and violent outbursts, and he was still a child when his physically ill father died, which left the family in dire straits. Hunter’s mother’s deteriorating condition eventually necessitated her being placed in a psychiatric hospital, and he and his older brother Tommy wound up living at an orphanage. The author soon met a basketball coach for a local church and a Boy Scout leader. Hunter writes that he was enthralled by the charismatic man named Charlie, who excited him with the prospect of joining the Boy Scouts. One year later, the 11-year-old author became an official part of the troop, and when the author was 12, Charlie began sexually abusing the young boy. Not long afterward, Charlie coerced the author into “hustling” on the streets, earning money that the older man pocketed for himself. The author and his abuser lived together, although Hunter did see his mother regularly after she was released from the hospital. He writes of hoping to find a way to somehow escape from Charlie, whose abuse later included regular beatings.

Hunter unflinchingly relates his remembrance in unadorned prose that depicts his early years, although he never graphically describes any of the abuse he suffered. The book isn’t entirely linear in its chronology, since its first half alternates between the mid-1960s and the early ’70s, when he describes being trafficked for sex. Mostly, however, the memoir presents his life chronologically, revealing his increasingly dire situation and the gradual manner in which Charlie lured him into his abusive plans. The book also intermittently focuses on the author’s brother Danny, who returned from his military service in Vietnam shortly after their father’s death. Danny didn’t “lead the family,” though, as the other members of the family had hoped that he would; he suffered from PTSD, was addicted to drugs, and regularly mistreated his siblings. Charlie is clearly portrayed as a cruel person who habitually beat and intimidated the author. The book’s latter half centers on the author’s interactions with a couple of pedophilic “johns,” whom he remembers fondly for their occasional moments of apparent kindness—a dynamic that readers will surely find disturbing. Hunter rounds out his novel with a concise, effective wrap-up that details his days after freeing himself from his abusive situation, his loss of someone close to him, and where his life is now. One section includes a handful of personal photos of the author’s family and places he’s lived or once frequented, as well as one person’s mug shot.

An often absorbing true story of hardship and admirable perseverance.