CHILD ABUSE (Lost Boy, The - Dave Pelzer)

Member Name: jingles

Product:	Lost Boy, The - Dave Pelzer
Date:	16/08/01 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highlights to us all the seriousness of child abuse and how kids throughout the world are suffering

Disadvantages: The fact that Dave Pelzer (or anyone else) had to suffer this life experience which enabled him to write such a book

Dave Pelzer has the pleasure of being known to have suffered what many feel to be one of the worse cases of child abuse in the state of California EVER ( the 3rd worse in his state to be precise). His book A Child Called “IT” can only be described as harrowing to say the least. It is part of an autobiographical trilogy and is the first book.

At present you may find the book nestling in the Top 10 best sellers and for me deservedly so.

This book is not for the faint hearted or sensitive to say the least. It really would be too distressing to note scenes from this book. Suffice to say, Pelzer reveals to us his childhood. Until the age of 4 it was idyllic – mom, dad, Dave and his 2 older brothers. Like a scene from the Waltons. Some how though things stared to go wrong. Whether it was brought on by some form of Post Natal Depression from the subsequent birth of siblings or deteriorating mental health l do not know, but Pelzer’s mother slips from reality. Dave becomes the focus of all her pent up aggression and hatred. In this book,the scenes l read made me wince, skim over passages which were literally too hard to read and gasp aloud in horror. The physical and mental torture suffered is tremendous. His father whom he idolised as his saving hero was far from that – he was able to sit by and watch his wife behave in such a way toward his own flesh and blood – obviously a weak character, unable to stand up to a woman intent on causing tremendous infliction. This treatment was suffered for almost 8 years from the age of 4, before a schoolteacher had the balls to put an end to it all.

Pelzer has his own child now, and in the epilogue he struggles to bring him up with a happy normal childhood – wondering if he has inherited any of his mothers madness. The epilogue also has a passage from the head teacher who put his neck on the line to save Dave from what to me would have been certain death
should the abuse continued.

The book is not a big book – in fact l began reading it at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon and had it completed 1.5 hours later (I do read fast!) The book holds your attention l think because you want to ensure that this little boy escapes to a better place, that someone notices his plight and stands up to his mother.

I have yet to read the other 2 subsequent sequels – The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave; but rest assured that these are on my reading list in the near future. I need to find out what fate awaited his mother and if she was suitably punished, l need to know that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

The story does have a happy ending in that Pelzer went on to join the armed forces and climbed in the ranks, and in 1996 he even carried the Centennial Flag in the Olympics.

It is a heart-rending story, and l will warn you now, be prepared to be shocked – the story is far from Maeve Binchy. It is worth reading though you really realise the strength and will power, which can be found in the human character and its will to survive.

Many may have critised this work - saying it is not the work of a child or through the eyes of a child. Perhaps not, he wasnt a child when he wrote the book - l dont think he claims that at all - he is looking back at his childhood and stating how HE Dave Pelzer NOW remembers it. OK there may be worse cases of child abuse out there - Dave never claims to be the only ever victim or that he was the most worse off out of all the kids to suffer - he's telling the world HIS story, highlighting a very serious subject to us all. I think we all can learn from this book, we all can see what courage it takes to stand up to those opressors, stick up two fingers at them and say lm not taking this crap any more.

Please not l have rated this book low - due to the fact of the subject matter NOT on the actual book itself.

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