What a beautiful book albeit incredibly sad and disturbing. Reading it relatively recently after the escape of Natascha Kampusch definitely put it into a more believable context. As the mother of an almost four year old, I found the child's language really effective and have since noticed Milly using similar, slightly skewed sentence structure. Despite the narrator being the child, the book still strongly and effectively conveyed the sense of desperation and frustation of the mother, and her understandable (and just about hidden) impatience with Jack's unwillingness to embrace the world on their release. This is a story that will stay with you... 8/10
I was baffled for a while as to what the situation was with the mother and child.Were they in hiding? Were they jewish fugitives in the WW2? Why did the inanimate objects take on such strong personas? I could not stop reading until these questions were answered, but when the answer came to me and the desperate plight of mother and child unfolded,I felt "do I want to read any further".What is going to happen to them now? But ,of course I had to know if the reckless plan to escape succeeded. Once free,the outside world presented such problems ,ordeals following ordeals. My heart went to her when her mother announced that they had thought she had run away from home.This seemed such a betrayal to Ma in view of her suffering at the hands of a captor. The prolonged breast feeding gave a sense of shared support and comfort between Ma and her child,and what a child,his complete faith in his mother was beautiful and touching. The upheaval of the lives of the family and the subsequent gentle acceptance and return to the fold gives hope to all who are subjected to misfortune.The return to the place of captivity ,to say "goodbye" gives closure and the ability to move forward. 10 /10. this story will stay with me,too.
When I started off reading this book, after the first few chapters the true storyline started to dawn on me. Jack and Ma aren't in some kind of vengeful american top security prison at all, or are they? Well they are in prison, it's just a different kind of prison. After that I was hooked, the child's narrative voice worked for me, touching, vunerable, honest and full of humour in a tale where there wasn't anything to laugh at really. A different narrator probably couldn't have carried the book. The thing I couldn't stop thinking about after I finished it was the fact that this has actually happened to women, albeit in very small numbers which made the tale come to life even more. Altogether 8/10
What a beautiful book albeit incredibly sad and disturbing. Reading it relatively recently after the escape of Natascha Kampusch definitely put it into a more believable context. As the mother of an almost four year old, I found the child's language really effective and have since noticed Milly using similar, slightly skewed sentence structure. Despite the narrator being the child, the book still strongly and effectively conveyed the sense of desperation and frustation of the mother, and her understandable (and just about hidden) impatience with Jack's unwillingness to embrace the world on their release. This is a story that will stay with you... 8/10
ReplyDeleteI was baffled for a while as to what the situation was with the mother and child.Were they in hiding? Were they jewish fugitives in the WW2?
ReplyDeleteWhy did the inanimate objects take on such strong personas?
I could not stop reading until these questions were answered, but when the answer came to me and the desperate plight of mother and child unfolded,I felt "do I want to read any further".What is going to happen to them now?
But ,of course I had to know if the reckless plan to escape succeeded.
Once free,the outside world presented such problems ,ordeals following ordeals. My heart went to her when her mother announced that they had thought she had run away from home.This seemed such a betrayal to Ma in view of her suffering at the hands of a captor.
The prolonged breast feeding gave a sense of shared support and comfort between Ma and her child,and what a child,his complete faith in his mother was beautiful and touching.
The upheaval of the lives of the family and the subsequent gentle acceptance and return to the fold gives hope to all who are subjected to misfortune.The return to the place of captivity ,to say "goodbye" gives closure and the ability to move forward.
10 /10. this story will stay with me,too.
When I started off reading this book, after the first few chapters the true storyline started to dawn on me. Jack and Ma aren't in some kind of vengeful american top security prison at all, or are they? Well they are in prison, it's just a different kind of prison. After that I was hooked, the child's narrative voice worked for me, touching, vunerable, honest and full of humour in a tale where there wasn't anything to laugh at really. A different narrator probably couldn't have carried the book. The thing I couldn't stop thinking about after I finished it was the fact that this has actually happened to women, albeit in very small numbers which made the tale come to life even more. Altogether 8/10
ReplyDelete