This review is a little different from my usual
pieces because I rarely read non-fiction. However this gripping book was too
good to put down or pass up.
I rate this memoir 4.5 out of 5.
A Stolen Life details Jacyee Dugard’s harrowing experience
as a kidnap victim who is forced to live in the backyard of her abductor for
the next eighteen years of her life, suffering horrible neglect and sexual and
mental abuse. In those years she bears
two daughters to her rapist, and grows from an eleven year old child into an
adult, always striving to look for hope and a future for herself and then her
children. Years of her life are taken away, but this is a novel about a woman
who refuses to give up.
Written in first person present tense the narration
is bare and revealing. Little to nothing is left out in the revelations of what
she goes through. Besides the passages
detailing her imprisonment there are frequent reflections done in the point of
view of the present day woman. In these moments she talks about the experience
with some critical distance and goes on to explain parts of the story that
might not be immediately presented by her younger self. Part of the
novel also includes diary entries that she made as a young woman, a heartbreaking
collection of entries that show a beautiful soul becoming more and more
desperate with each new day.
This novel is not for the faint of heart or easily
upset. The descriptions of her sexual abuse as a child are graphic,
pornographic, and unapologetic. Jaycee is sharing her life with the world if
the people are willing to read, but she had to live through such distress and
she refuses to hide or protect the man and woman who stole her childhood and so much more. It is a life story that is deeply sad and disturbing
with a surprising amount of healing in the resolution. The bravery it
took to write of such an experience with such openness and then go on to live a
life after, well it is something to be admired.
As a reader I have to admit I was greatly disturbed
by what I read, but I couldn’t stop reading. I finished the book in a few days
and almost felt bad about reading something such as this so avidly. But it wasn’t
the abuse that grips you tight and keeps you glued to the page. It is Jaycee.
It is her amazing mind and her endless hopes and dreams. Through the whole
thing I was rooting for her, feeling for her, and waiting for her to be saved.
Almost everyone has heard about her story when she
was saved and her face and life were plastered all over the news for weeks.
Even now a google search will come up with so many hits on her name and story.
However, to really see things, to know what she went through and to fully understand
the unflagging perseverance of the human spirit, one must read her book.
Jacyee Lee Dugard, you are an inspiration to us all.
By, Alissa Tsaparikos
No comments:
Post a Comment