Can we talk for a minute about this book?
Actually, talking about this book is the last thing I want to do. The first thing I want to do? Throw it across the room. Dig a hole and bury it. Bring it back to the library. Any one of those.
This is a Syllabus Book. I understand why it is a Syllabus Book – I worked at a public library’s youth department for a few years, and this title was EXTREMELY popular with the 5th and 6th grad crowd. But I am just not sure I’m going to be able to make it through.
A Child Called “It” is a memoir of a victim of extreme child abuse. I think there is some controversy as to whether or not this book is truthful – see: this really long article from the New York Times – but I don’t even really care about that. Fiction or non-fiction, this book is horrifically graphic.
Today, reading while standing on the bus, I had to put the book down because I feared that I might vomit/pass out/generally become incapacitated. I sat in the first seat I could find and had to skip pages. There is only one other book that I have ever had to stop reading due to utter revulsion: the story “Guts” from Chuck Pahlaniuk’s Haunted, a story that according to Wikipedia has caused over 70 people to faint during public readings.
Maybe this is supposed to be an uplifting tale of overcoming challenges. Maybe because it’s “memoir” – some tangible version of a real person’s life – then that means it is worthwhile to exist, because all people’s stories are worthwhile.
Or maybe it’s torture porn. Something else I couldn’t finish because it had me feeling sick and weird in the exact same way? The movie Hostel.
Maybe I will get some insights on why kids like this book once we talk about it in class, but right now I’m finding it hard to believe that ANYONE would like it.
I did speech and debate in high school and my event was Dramatic Interp. SO MANY PEOPLE did excerpts from this book. I have no desire to read it. . ever.
I’ve only read the Wikipedia article about “IT” and I don’t intend to read the book, but isn’t a writer supposed to pull an emotional response from the reader? Excessive torture stories might be a cheap way to pull an emotional response, but if it moves the story along it could be difficult to edit out of the narrative. What might be scariest about the book is how the readers react. How many of the younger readers relate to it because they’ve had similar experiences? How many adults buzzed through those pages you skipped because they think its good parenting?
Google “Ricky Holland” for a similar made in Michigan story. Check out the character Kalervo from the Finnish creation myth Kalevala, which is the only myth that acknowledged child abuse.
the problem with the abuse theme is that it is the opposite of the hero archetype the that has been handed down through western mythology. Isis searched the nile for Ra’s parts and put him back together to make the son horus, in the kalevala lemminkainen was sewen back together by his mother, mary cried at the foot of Jesus’s crucifix, freja made every living things swear not to hurt balder. In the west, motherhood is sacred because it is charged with turning sons into heroes. When a mother refuses that responsibility by abusing the son, society has no response because once abused the son can never attain the heroic archetype, i.e., resurrection and the redemption of sin.
“It” would make a good inspirational story if the author could show he obtained the heroic archetype. He’s got a huge burden of proof (if the book is non-fiction) because he’s got to get damn near resurrection. Otherwise, you are right, its nothing more than torture porn.
Is there a definitive measure of whether or not Mr. Pelzer, or anyone, successfully creates a heroic archetype in a novel? I think what you are kind of saying here is if the writing or story is “good enough,” it will redeem whatever is graphic/negative about the book. I think I agree with you on that, although I am not sure how to figure out whether or not a book is doing that, definitively.
I think you may have also landed on why people DO like it – it’s a hero’s story. However, I would argue STRONGLY that A) the writing is so crappy it doesn’t redeem the graphic elements and B) the writing is so crappy, it’s not even clear that it’s a hero’s story. The plot kind of goes like this:
1. Boy gets abused for no reason
2. Boy gets abused some more for no reason
3. Boy gets abused again for no reason
4. Boy gets abused even more graphically for no reason
5. Boy feels hopeless about his abuse
6. Boy gets abused some more
7. A flash-to-the-future chapter, showing you that the boy survived, lived to tell the tale, lived to have his own kids and enjoy a beautiful sunset or something, some waxing poetic about life’s struggles.
8. A bunch of back matter, including a message from the author: “This story is clearly unfinished. You probably have questions like ‘how did The Boy eventually escape?’ Instead of mailing me for answers to your many questions, please buy my next two books which will EXPLAIN ALL!”
I am having trouble finding reason to believe this book is literature. But it is interesting – did you read the NYT article I linked to in this post? I think you’d find it interesting – talks about small publishers, how Pelzer promotes his books, etc etc
this book left me in tears, also im tired of people saying how badly this book was written. This man had to go back to his dark past and remember every little horrible thing his mother did to him. As for me i give this book a 5 star rating for well…… telling the world your story