Not an easy read! (Behind Cloosed Doors - Jenny Tomlin)

Member Name: foxylou1980

Product:	Behind Cloosed Doors - Jenny Tomlin
Date:	04/03/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives an insight into the lack of child protection in the 1960s and 1970s

Disadvantages: Can be very difficult to read, not for the faint-hearted!

I have just finished reading this book tonight, and I found it to be very affecting. I am not usually a fan of so-called "misery memoirs" but I have found myself reading more and more of them lately, not too sure why, must be getting a bit morbid in my old age or something! But this has to be one of the worst cases of child abuse I have ever heard or read about.

Jenny Tomlin is a truly inspirational woman. This book is a retrospective account of her life from early childhood to early adulthood. It can be very difficult to read at times and is certainly not for the faint-hearted.

PEOPLE IN THE BOOK:
Jenny - the author of the book. Jenny is the mother of the actress/singer Martine McCutcheon, most famous for her role as Tiffany in Eastenders in the 1990s. Jenny had an extremely troubled childhood; neglected by both parents and living in a filthy house with hardly any food to eat, and sexually, physically and mentally abused by her paedophile father. She becomes something of a surrogate mother to her younger siblings.

Kim - Jenny's younger sister, also sexually, mentally and physically abused by their father.

Laurence - Jenny's older brother, who is mentally and physically abused by their father, but not sexually (in Jenny's own words, "he was saving that for the girls".)

Carole - Jenny's youngest sister, who is also sexually abused by their father, but always jumps to his defence (Jenny feels that this must have been her way of dealing with it).

Chris - the youngest brother in the family, also physically and mentally abused by their father, who unfortunately dies at the tender age of 16 from solvent abuse (I'm not giving anything away here; Jenny speaks of his death in the book's prologue).

Jenny's father - I can honestly say that this man is such an absolute scumbag. He abuses his children in such terrible ways, as well as assualting and raping his wife on an almost daily basis. He does not have one redeeming feature. What I really did wonder when reading the book was how did he come to be this way? From Jenny's account of his parents there is no suggestion that his childhood was anything like the hell he made his own children live through.

Jenny's mother - I found myself getting so angry with this woman! She take so much abuse from her husband yet is willing to put his needs before those of her children. I did feel quite sorry for her in the early parts of the book as Jenny says that she thinks her mother may have had some sort of learning disability. This was until I got to in my opinion the most awful part of the story, where her mother stands by and cheers on as her father rapes their friend's 10 year old daughter (and in fact films the rape), and is more than willing to watch Jenny be raped by their male friend at the age of nine. This really did turn my stomach and I found it very shocking; we all know that terrible things like this do happen but to read someone's first-person account of it is still incredibly difficult. I told you this book wasn't for the faint-hearted!

Auntie - the children's great-aunt who is the one person in the world who really cares for them. Jenny speaks of this lady with such warmth, love and affection, and it's not surprising as she sounds like a remarkably kind and selfless woman.

MY OPINION OF THE BOOK:
I found the book quite difficult to read; it is so sad to think that things like this are still happening today. At the time the book is set, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was very little legislation around child protection. There are so many points in the book where the children could have been helped but they were virtually ignored by everyone, including the police and the NSPCC. It made me think of the recent tragic cases in the news and what we as a society can do to stope the abuse of our most vulnerable members.

As I said at the beginning of this review, Jenny Tomlin is truly inspirational. It must have been so difficult for her to write this book, reliving old memories like that, although you get the feeling that this was ultimately a cathartic experience for her.

I would recommend this book, although it is very upsetting and affecting.

Summary: A very well-written account of one young girl's ultimate triumph over adversity