I heard of a lot of child abuse cases, but never before have I read about one in detail. What David Pelzer goes though in A Child Called 'It' is pretty remarkable. It's, uh, stunning. "Shocking", really. Almost 'unbelieveable'. It's easy to see why so many people (such as his brothers) don't believe Dave Pelzer: because they don't want to.
I don't want to fully believe him either. Knowing, as I do, how easy it is to create false memories, how difficult it is to remember anything in any sort of detail (unless your some sort of savant who can memorize a city layout after one short viewing), and how impossible it is to actually describe anything perfectly, despite what linguists would like. Also, he wrote his memoirs 20 years after he was abused. I wonder if even a savant would still remember everything perfectly after 20 years.
But essentially, I think he isn't trying to exaggerating or downplaying anything. He's trying to be faithful. He is corroborated by one brother, Richard (Russell in Dave's books) who has capitalized on Dave's venture and written a series of books himself: A Brother's Journey and A Teenager's Journey (A Man's Journey coming soon, which will probably feature the silhouette of a man with his arms raised on the front cover), about his personal abuse after David left. I don't vilify him for this, like some people do, I just criticize his covers and names, which are boring. I haven't read them, though I'd like to at least see the first.
I also did not read A Man Named Dave. I got too tired of his writing. Dave's may be better at titles than his little brother, but his writing leaves something to be desired. It's so up and down. You get to the point that your can predict how something is going to go: "I knew in my heart things would get better!..." means shit's gonna hit the fan. "But I knew in my heart it would never change" means there might be a change for a little while, if he's living with his mother, it's not to last and it really wouldn't change. His books could keep me up, though, so that's an accomplishment. It was very interesting to read the 'perspectives' chapters in the back which were written from so many different people. The last one, out of both books, written by Michael Marsh is the most skillfully written by far, but others really make Dave's writing seem brilliant.
The Lost Boy is just as remarkable as A Child Called It, and really just the second half of one book. Today, I think most people understand psychology and the reality of abuse a whole lot better than they did in the 70's. It is really hard for anyone to recover from abuse: it leaves scars on the brain so much more vivid than any on the body. That David was able to succeed in foster care at all, let alone so well, is, to use a tired cliché, nothing short of a miracle.
These books are inspirational and informative. It was a value reading them, and probably about as enjoyable as the subject matter would allow.
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