A Child Called It

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it." Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.


This is one of those books that would just not go away. I hadn't heard of it until I started working at Coles in the fall of 2000, but it was already hugely popular by then. If I am not mistaken, my manager at the time had read it and raved about it. But I don't read popular books because I'm a book snob, so I left it. Every so often it would pop up in conversation, and so many people I know loved it and talk about it to this day. So after 15 and a half years, and yet another person telling me it was their favourite book, I figured I would give it a go. Something that has been popular for so long, at very least, I figured was worth my time.

I feel like I am treading on broken glass when it comes to criticizing this book, because how can I give credit to the topic of abuse without praising (possibly) the most popular book shedding light of the topic? So, as much as I didn't like this book as much as many others, keep in mind that I do appreciate the subject of child abuse and I don't think it doesn't happen. I am just completely judging this book on itself, not the topic of abuse.

I think the problem starts with autobiographies in general. In my opinion, almost all autobiographies and memoirs have some element of fiction to them. Frankly, they are based on the author's own opinions of themselves and I don't think many people see themselves as clearly as they see others or others see them. In comparison, the author of a biography has to base their writing on hard facts, so they are generally far more accurate. The other problem is that often people that are not famous that pen memoirs or autobiographies have to answer to an editor before their book gets published. In 2006, there was a big controversy surrounding the book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (haven't read it, sorry no link ;) ), because it was chosen as an Oprah book club pick, and then it was discovered that there were many aspects of the book that were falsified. When I heard about this, all I could think, when I heard what had been changed or made up was like it sounded like an editor went to town to the point that his story wasn't true anymore. In the case of A Child Called It, I am sure there are some parts that are over edited by an editor. There are some instances where the story is embellished to make it more "entertaining". The best example I can have about this takes place in the first chapter of the book. This part actually is in reference to his escape from the abusive household David was in, but was so cheezy and hollywoodized it was almost unbelievable. As a result I ended up questioning the validity and honesty of almost everything that happens in the book.

As one can see from the book description, this book is not for the faint of heart. The level of abuse that happens is absolutely appalling. I feel compelled to state that I know levels of abuse to this severity happen. There is no doubt about it, however I do question whether it happened to Peltzer. Some family members have gone on record stating that it didn't happen to the levels described in the book. Although one brother did back up Peltzer's account, he also published a book and gained profits off of this alleged abuse. Which is another thing that makes me doubt Peltzer's legitimacy.

This brings us back to the writing style and validity of the story. For such a serious topic the writing style is extremely unpolished. There is a waiver at the beginning stating that it was on purpose to show the perspective of a 4-12 year old, but it wasn't done very well. I feel like the writing needed to be better to give this issue the attention it deserves. I feel it should have been edited more for grammar and style and less for content.

The best thing I can say for this book is that it draws attention to an issue that everyone needs to be aware of. Abuse happens and we cannot remain complacent with hoping that someone else will deal with it. If you want to read a book that will create an urge to become an activist for child rights, then this may be the book for you.

However, overall, if you want to read a book about horrible abuse that happen to children and may give you nightmares (which is what I believe the intended reaction to A Child Called It was), then I would suggest reading Push by Sapphire. Although Push is classified as fiction where A Child Called It is non, I think that the same shock value is there. Sapphire was a counselor that combined attributes of several of her cases to create Precious, so in the same context we KNOW that these abuses happen to children, but she doesn't have to compromise her integrity to tell her story.


P.S. I am not sure why my blog does not like having the text all blue, but it often refuses and I am not sure how to fix it. So just so you know, I'm not unaware it's happening, I just am at a loss of how to correct it :/