A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy

A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy by David Pelzer briefly recalls the horrific child abuse Pelzer suffered at the hands of his mother and his subsequent years spent in the foster care system. My paperback copy of A Child Called "It" was originally published in 1995 and is 184 pages. My paperback copy of The Lost Boy was originally published in 1997 and is 340 pages. The number of pages in both of these books is not a true indication of the length of these books. The language is simple, the type is large, the spaces between sentences is great, and the margins are wide. There are also several pages of extra information in the back, like brief accounts from people who were or are in Pelzer's life now. Let's just say I read both in one night... a night in which I also took a long call from a friend, talked to family members, and made hot chocolate for everyone.

A Child Called "It" briefly tells of the appalling child abuse and torture Pelzer's alcoholic mother inflicted upon him. After years of abuse, a schoolteacher finally noticed the bruises, scratches, chipped teeth, wounds, etc., and called other's attention to it which eventually lead to David being removed from his home. There are two questions that come to mind while reading about the adults around Pelzer when he was a child. The first one is why didn't his father step in and at least try to stop the abuse. I will never understand why an adult let this malicious abuse continue to happen to their child. The second question is why didn't the school (or some other adult) notice and start documenting the evidence sooner. The Lost Boy continues Pelzer's story about his time spent in the foster care system. (At this point in his story one wonders why his mother was never charged with child abuse and thrown into prison.) I recommend both books as autobiographies, but there are probably meatier books out there if you truly want to study the causes and effects of child abuse. rating: 3

Blasphemy

At first it appeared Lincoln Child (writing partner with Preston and author of Deep Storm ) may have been right when he wrote: "With Blasphemy, Douglas Preston has finally gone too far. One way or another, I'm afraid he may burn for this book." I was thinking these same thoughts almost until the end of the book. I stayed up way too late finishing Blasphemy. My hardcover copy was published in January 2008 and has 415 pages.

In Blasphemy, the government has built a new $40 billion particle accelerator named Isabella on the Navajo reservation. This supercollider, run by a super computer, was built in an attempt to study the Big Bang theory. A team of twelve scientists, lead by Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius, are isolated in the remote location and frantically trying to get Isabella working properly - without creating a black hole in the process. But something appears to be going wrong so the government sends in Wyman Ford, ex-CIA, ex-monk, to work undercover at Isabella. His known job is acting as a liaison with the local Navajo people, but his real mission is to try and find out why the supercollider is not working yet and what the scientists are not telling them. In the meantime, a Washington Lobbyist schemes to have a televangilist question the purpose of Isabella. This televangilist contacts a delusional preacher on the Rez who helps set into motion a small army of fanatic fundamentalists.

While reading you are going to really feel the book really is bordering on blasphemy, but keep reading. You have to finish this one to appreciate it. I highly recommend this book - but only if you read the whole book. Rating: 4.5

Quotes:

"The huge flat-panel screens all around suddenly woke up. A sudden singing noise seemed to float in the air, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. 'What's that?...It sounds like the monolith in 2001' ."

"An image was appearing in the void, an image so strange, so beautiful, that at first he couldn't wrap his mind around it."

"We couldn't have found a better place, Wyman - isolated, undisturbed, uninhabited. But to me the most important thing was the beauty of this landscape, because beauty and mystery have a central place in physics. As Einstein said, 'The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true science.' "

"He was struck by their haggard appearance, their pale, cave-creature faces and rumpled clothes. They looked worse than a bunch of grad students at the bitter end of final exams."

"We will destroy that infernal machine out there in the howling desert. We will put an end to the blasphemy against You called Isabella."

" 'So you all don't believe that a Creator made the universe.'

' I'm Catholic, Mr. Begay In my view the Big Bang was simply how He did it.' "

This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading?

If I want to read a book and am familiar with other work by that author, I can easily ignore bad reviews. A bad review from someone I know might encourage me to wait a bit before reading a new author and make reading that particular book a lower priority. Bad reviews from, say, Amazon are easy to ignore unless the majority of the reviews are bad.

If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it?

Yes. Normally I choose books by author or I rely on the decription of the book. If all the reviews are bad, however, I might hesitate or make it a lower priority.

If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

Maybe, if it is in a genre I like. All the good and glowing reviews in the world of a romance novel will not encourage me to read it. Of course, I'll probably never read those reviews either.

Barrel Fever

There is an uneven quality in the selection of stories and essays in Barrel Fever by David Sedaris. Originally published in 1994, my paperback copy has 196 pages. This is not Sedaris at his best and I almost stopped reading after the first 50 pages. The only reason I kept reading was because it isn't a novel. In general, I did not enjoy most of the stories. I appreciated more of the essays. The story titled "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family" written as an over the top Christmas letter and the story "Barrel Fever" were both funny. By far the most enjoyable selection was the essay, "Santaland Diaries." This is a so-so recommendation, if only for the essay "Santaland Dairies." If you have never read any of Sedaris' work, pick up Me Talk Pretty One Day or Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim before you consider Barrel Fever. Rating: 2

Quotes:

"Listening to Mrs. Peacock is like trying to decipher what a ground hog might mean when it clicks its tongue three times and paws at the earth with a hind foot."

"Did I tell you what your sister Hope sent me for my birthday?...A poncho... I've written her back saying I'm sure it will come in very handy the next time I mount my burro for a three-day journey over the mountains to the neighboring village."

"[T]here was nothing of mine in those boxes [of unwanted gifts] as, at an early age, I discovered that postage stamps, cartons of cigarettes, light bulbs, and mail-order steaks are the gifts that keep giving."

"Did I tell you that your sister Charity called me? I hardly recognized her voice because it's been, what, three years since she's phoned me. It seems she lost her job at the suicide prevention hot line and is looking to borrow some money. I said, 'Hold on just a few seconds darling. It's a bit difficult to reach my purse with this IV in my arm.' "

"I am a thirty-three-year-old man applying for a job as an elf.... Even worse than applying is the very real possibility that I will not be hired, that I couldn't find work as an elf."

" They closed the meeting saying, 'I want you to remember that even if you are assigned Photo Elf on a busy weekend, YOU ARE NOT SANTA'S SLAVE.' "

"I've meet elves from all walks of life. Most of them are show business people... but a surprising number of them held real jobs... before the recession hit. Bless their hearts, these people never imagine there was a velvet costume waiting in their future. They're the really bitter elves."

"Lately I am feeling trollish and have changed my elf name from Crumpet to Blisters."

"I've had two people say that to me today, 'I'm going to get you fired.' Go ahead, be my guest. I'm wearing a green velvet costume; it doesn't get any worse than this. Who do these people think they are?"

Run

Run by Ann Patchett was published in September 2007 and is 295 pages long. In Run the majority of the plot revolves around one 24 hour period in the lives of two families. The main family is that of Bernard Doyle, his son Sullivan, and his two adopted sons, Tip and Teddy. Circumstances connect Tennessee Moser and her daughter Kenya to the Doyles: when they are all leaving a lecture during a snow storm, Tennessee pushes Tip out of the path of an SUV and is hit by it herself. Patchett wants us to exam "what truly defines family and the lengths we will go to protect our children." It is largely successful in this area. Although there are a couple of intriguing subplots that are left undeveloped, this doesn't detract from the story. While Run is not as compelling as Bel Canto, it is a very enjoyable book and I highly recommend it. Rating: 4.5

From Barnes & Nobel - Sarah Conrad Weisman - Library Journal:

"Two families come together in a traffic accident during a snowstorm. Nothing terribly unusual there, except that a woman has purposely thrown herself under a car to protect a stranger. It quickly becomes clear that the families-a poor, single black mother with her 11-year-old daughter and a white, Irish Catholic, former Boston mayor with a biological son and two adopted black college-aged sons whose much-loved wife died over 20 years ago-have a connection. The award-winning Patchett (Bel Canto) here presents an engrossing and enjoyable novel. While there are a few unexpected turns, the reader very quickly figures out where the plot is headed, but that does not detract from the pleasure of reading. The somewhat unusual premise is presented very matter-of-factly; this is not a story about race but about family and the depths of parents' love of their children, whether biological, adopted, given away, or otherwise acquired, and of each other."

Quotes:

"And why should two adopted sons, two black adopted sons, own the statue that was meant to be passed down from redheaded mother to redheaded daughter?"

"On those sunny days with the wild roses blooming red against the dunes to their right and the ocean sliding back and forth over the sand to their left, his father was the inventor of taxonomy, the namer of living things."

"Even now, when it was abundantly clear that Doyle had failed, he could not entirely abandon his drive to shape them."

"That was the way it was in any room where one person took the center stage: some of the people would listen with concentration while others couldn't tell you a single thing that was said. It didn't really matter who the speaker was, or if they were boring or passionate. You never got everyone's attention... Doyle knew this... But Teddy and Tip, at the ages of twenty and twenty-one respectively, each believed that he was the only person who had drifted off to other things."

"Besides, just because Tip was smart didn't mean that Teddy was stupid. Teddy wasn't stupid, he just wandered. Even as a little boy Tip could be pinned into place by an idea... Teddy, on the other hand, was more like a cloud."

"Somewhere along the line Teddy's love for his mother had become his love for Father Sullivan, and his love for Father Sullivan became his love for God. The three of them were bound into an inextricable knot: the living and the dead and the life everlasting."

"But then she remembered her vigilance. That was the word her mother taught her. Don't stop looking around. Don't stop watching. Every moment you've got to know where you are, what's coming up behind you, who's staring you down."

"His heart woke him up to remind him that in life there was never a limitless number of nights."

stalked by a church

Old Hat has a post up called "Baptists of the Corn." I can relate to part of his story and I'd like to send you over there to read him, but first let me share our stalked by a church story:

Several years ago we too visited a church once and then felt stalked from that point forward. And, yes, by the end of the first week the attention was just plain creepy and we never went back. I can no longer remember the exact sequence of visits, calls, and gifts, but I'm sure my kids will recall that week and I'll make corrections as needed. This wasn't a small town church either. We were living in a large city.

We had decided to visit during their Saturday night service because we thought this would be a good time to get a feel for the church and it's people. The service was OK and we might have gone back for another visit - except for their subsequent follow up. Our mistake was filling out a visitors card. After this experience, we have never made that mistake again. If a church wants to catch us visiting, someone had better notice when we're there because we are not going to leave a paper trail again.

It began on Monday when we received a phone call thanking us for visiting, which I thought was a nice touch at that time.

Tuesday we received a package of information about the church in the mail. We were good with this too and commented on how prompt they were to send out information.

Then, on Wednesday, I returned home to find a gift bag by our front door with a plastic bag of homemade cookies in it and more information about the church. This started to creep me out. Although I'm fairly certain that the church outreach team wasn't trying to poison us, I also did not know these people or who made the cookies. A small town might be able to get away with sharing homemade baked goods, but in a city, cookies follow the "candy from strangers" rule as far as I'm concerned. Over the years I've met some very kind people who have kitchens that are disaster areas. Additionally in the mail Wednesday we received even more information.

I believe this is the day the initial fund raising information started being sent to us.

Thursday is very likely the day we had another large information packet with a VHS tape mailed to us The tape may have presented the complete fund raising program information and explained why this newly built church needed a 2+ million dollar expansion. We had written instructions that informed us that after viewing the tape we were to return it to the church so they could share the exciting news with others. Our problem was that we didn't have a working VCR and couldn't watch the exciting news on the tape. This likely didn't matter because we were inundated with fund raising information from that time forward.

While other organizations might look at taking all those homemade cookies and having a bake sale to start raising money, I was a bit shocked to see this church ask in the fund raising information to be named as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. They included information on how to get a home equity loan and donate the money to the church. They called themselves a life changing church but it looked more like a life charging program from our perspective. My son, Wonder Boy, called their fund raising plan a "give like you're rich quick scheme" which just about sums it up.

We never set foot in that church again but continued to receive requests for donations for probably 2 or 3 years afterwards.

The Lost

I highly recommend Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. My hardcover copy of this nonfiction work is 513 pages long and was originally published in September 2006. The Lost follows Mendelsohn's search for information on six family members who perished in the Holocaust. This is the story not only of these family members, but of Mendelsohn's search, his journey, trying to uncover any information he could about them. When I first heard Mendelsohn talking about his book on Book TV early in 2007, I immediately put The Lost on my wish list. It is to my detriment that I didn't get my hands on a copy and read it immediately.

This is not a book that simply enumerates the many atrocities of the Holocaust. I noticed (at Amazon) several short sighted reviewers who couldn't get through the book or didn't appreciate how Mendelsohn presented his search, his family's story. So, if you want to read a simple linear account in 100 pages or less of who was missing and what the information he finally uncovered shows him probably happened, then don't read The Lost. If you can appreciate the search for answers, the journey, the years spent in trying to piece together differing accounts from the fragile memories of aging survivors, then you will appreciate The Lost. This is a personal account of one man, in one family, and his search for the truth of what happened to their relatives. Mendelsohn doesn't simply tell the reader what the final answers to his many questions appear to be, but rather he recounts his search for these answers, for the truth or what may be the truth.
Rating: 4.5

Synopsis from The Lost:

"In this rich and riveting narrative, a writer's search for the truth behind his family's tragic past in World War II becomes a remarkably original epic - part memoir, part reportage, part mystery, and part scholarly detective work - that brilliantly explores the nature of time and memory, family and history.

The Lost begins as the story of a boy who grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust - an unmentionable subject that gripped his imagination from earliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939 and tantalized by fragmentary tales of a terrible betrayal, Daniel Mendelsohn sets out to find the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. That quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents, and forces him to confront the wrenching discrepancies between the histories we live and the stories we tell. And it leads him,
finally, back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began, and where the solution to a decades-old mystery awaits him.

Deftly moving between past and present, interweaving a world-wandering odyssey with childhood memories of a now-lost generation of immigrant Jews and provocative ruminations on biblical texts and Jewish history, The Lost transforms the story of one family into a profound, morally searching meditation on our fragile hold on the past. Deeply personal, grippingly suspenseful, and beautifully written, this literary tour de force illuminates all that is lost, and found, in the passage of time."

Quotes:

first sentence

"Some time ago, when I was six or seven or eight years old, it would occasionally happen that I'd walk into a room and certain people would begin to cry."

"My grandfather was famous (in the way that certain kinds of Jewish immigrants and their families will talk about someone being 'famous' for something, which generally means that about twenty-six people know about it)..."

"Like every other Jewish child I knew, I had some religious training. This was mostly to appease my grandfather, although, since the Reform Jewish education I was getting was so watered down, so denatured in comparison to the rigorously Orthodox heder learning he had required in Bolechow a lifetime ago, I and my three brothers may well have been educated by Catholic priests, as far as he was concerned."

"But I also know... that being so intimate, having too much access to what goes on inside those closest to you by blood... will sometimes have the opposite reaction, causing family members too flee one another, to seek more... 'space.' "

"As often happens in large families, we children early on adopted, or were given, what I thought of for a long time as 'labels.' "

"I had missed so much, when those elderly Jews who had surrounded me when I was a boy, and who had, it turned out, known so much that I now needed to know, were alive."

"The world is so much bigger than you can possibly imagine, if you grow up in a provincial place: a New York suburb, a Galician shtetl, it doesn't really matter. Then you start to travel."

"In my mind, that Latin half-line became a kind of caption for the poignantly unabridgeable distances created by time.. There are tears in things; but we all cry for different reasons."

"For anyone who's traveled extensively knows that, although you may think you know what you're looking for and where you're going when you first set out, what you learn along the way is often quite surprising."

"Sometimes the stories we tell are narratives of what happened; sometimes they are the images of what we wish had happened, the unconscious justifications of the lives we've ended up living."

"...I did and do believe, after all that I've seen and done, that if you search, you will, by the very act of searching, make something happen that would not otherwise have happened, you will find something, even something small, something that will certainly be more than if you hadn't gone looking in the first place, if you hadn't asked your grandfather anything at all."