![]() ![]() I was already aware that vast numbers of abusers come from very traumatic backgrounds and I had already had many experiences seeing the humanity in monsters who had committed truly deplorable crimes. I was concerned about the number of reviews I saw that mentioned that the book "humanizes a pedophile," including Alice Sebold's, as I didn't want to feel pity and forgiveness for a warm and cuddly child molester. After reading the review from NPR, I wasn't sure if this book was going to have what I was looking for but it was Kathryn Harrison's much more favorable and less ambivalent review in the NY Times that prompted me to try it. Having worked in the past with many, many victims of sexual abuse, I was already very aware of the grave misconceptions that abound about child molesters. I had wanted to read it because I thought it might be an insightful portrait of how a child molester truly preys on his victims (which it is). If my circumstances were different, I'm not sure that I would have been able to handle it. Fortunately, this one is a quick read or I'm not sure if I could have stood it much longer.Īs to the subject matter, it's very difficult to stomach. And I have read a lot of dark and disturbing books. I'm not sure if I have ever felt so morose while reading a book. ![]() It was less that I was observing these people and more as though I were one of them. This in itself became something of a problem as well because the deep depression of the narrator, as well as of all the characters, seeped right through me. I'm not sure at what point this turn occurred whether there was a change in the style of the writing or if it was rather that I just became accustomed to it. (Later in the book, her father tells other stories inspired by popular movies and television shows at the time so I came to feel this was a plausible hypothesis.)Īt any rate, at some point, something switched over and I became very immersed in the writing, almost as if I were living in it myself. Strangely, then I recalled that there was a TV movie made from the book at around the same time as the story was being told in the book it occurred to me that it was possible that her father had seen it and based his story on it, while the author remained wholly unaware. At one point, about thirty pages in, there was a cautionary tale supposedly told to her by her father that was suspiciously similar to a plot point from the novel The Dollmaker and I almost gave up on the book in disgust. There were some obvious anachronisms early on, which continued throughout the book, such as the cost of pay phones, styles of clothing, popular music. I was prepared for this by a well-written review I read on NPR, however, so I stuck with it. I am one of those people who has problems with the current trend in memoirs to be told in pages of elegant dialogue and lengthy descriptions of settings that cannot possibly be remembered. Initially, in the first part of the book, I found her writing to be difficult to believe and, therefore, difficult to get into. ![]() Both because of the subject matter and because of the writing style. This extraordinary memoir is an unprecedented glimpse into the psyche of a young girl in free fall and conveys to readers - including parents and survivors of abuse - just how completely a pedophile enchants his victim and binds her to him. Told with lyricism, depth, and mesmerizing clarity, Tiger, Tiger vividly illustrates the healing power of memory and disclosure. But when she is twenty-two, it is Peter - ill, and wracked with guilt - who kills himself, at the age of sixty-six. Charming and manipulative, Peter burrows into every aspect of Margaux's life and transforms her from a child fizzing with imagination and affection into a brainwashed young woman on the verge of suicide. In time, he insidiously takes on the role of Margaux's playmate, father, and lover. Her mother, beset by mental illness and overwhelmed by caring for Margaux, is grateful for the attention Peter lavishes on her, and he creates an imaginative universe for her, much as Lewis Carroll did for his real-life Alice. ![]() When Peter invites her and her mother to his house, the little girl finds a child's paradise of exotic pets and an elaborate backyard garden. One summer day, Margaux Fragoso meets Peter Curran at the neighborhood swimming pool, and they begin to play. ![]()
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