A nuanced testament to the complexity of the human spirit.
On May 6, 2013, electrifying headlines revealed news of the escape of three young women who had been missing for more than 10 years and presumed dead but were in fact held captive by Ariel Castro, a depraved Cleveland school bus driver.
Jordan and Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post journalists (The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia’s Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail, 2005) weave together a compelling chronicle of Berry and DeJesus' harrowing experiences in captivity, told in their own words and in a journal that Berry kept on scraps of paper. Berry tells how she was walking home after completing work when she made the tragic blunder of accepting a ride from Castro. Because he was the father of a former co-worker, she agreed to his making a brief stop at his house along the way. Once in the house, he overpowered and raped her and chained her to a bed in a room without windows. The date was April 21, 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. Only gradually did she realize that another victim (Michelle Knight) was also being held captive. In April 2004, 14-year-old DeJesus suffered the same fate. Jordan and Sullivan give an account of the continuing efforts of the police—prodded by their families—to discover their whereabouts. Berry relates how her relationship with Castro was transformed by the birth of their daughter, Jocelyn, in 2006. He doted on Jocelyn and over time became less vigilant, allowing Berry to escape. She also explores her own mixed feelings on hearing of his suicide in prison: “He kidnapped me, chained me like a dog in his house, and raped me over and over but he was Jocelyn's father. She loves him and he loved her.”
A nuanced testament to the complexity of the human spirit.Pub Date: April 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-525-42765-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2015
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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