Do you read those 'I was horribly abused' books?

[Julie]

I read them - I think I am fascinated by the dark side of human experience, I read a lot about serial killers and murderers as well.

Me too.

 

[oryx]

I read 'A Child Called It' 'cos a colleague lent me it & I couldn't not.

I reckon it's good to read this sort of stuff especially if one has had quite a good life like I have. I've had (& got) a comfortable & easy life - I'm not rich, have a very moderately paid job in the public sector and afford a modest holiday a year but I appreciate my loving upbringing & still being on good terms with my family.

I don't think I'm unusual in that every day I come into contact with people who have had fairly hellish lives and it helps me not to be complacent and to understand where people are coming from when I read books like this. Great literature it is not, but as autobiographies go I found it interesting and it 'stretched' me. Not in any literary sense, but in the sense that you need to appreciate that a lot of people in life have gone through hell (though hopefully Peltzer's experience was rare & extreme, but who knows?)

IYSWIM.

 

[kakuma]

theres one called 'my sweet orange tree' about a kid whose parents and sister used to beat fuck out of him, but he still had this amazing imagination and sensitivity, and was so sweet to his little brother, it's really beautiful cos it's written how i remember childhood (except i wasn't beaten to fuck or starving to death) and he ended up as a successful writer

in the afterword, the people who treated him well are all dead tho

 

[BettyButterfly]

My friend is reading them all at the moment but its not my cup of tea really! She keeps trying to encourage me but I get depressed enough without reading all that.

There is a chapter in " When Mumbo Jumbo Conquers the World" about self help books and how anyone can write them. A bit like with the Oprah thing.

 

[madamv]

Never. Ever. Never.

I just can't. I makes me distressed even looking at the titles..

I used to read the biogs of serial killers though, I think it must be the children thing.

Typical Jewish mom, my psychiatrist friend tells me I am.

 

[pk]

You know the kind of thing I mean - Dave Peltzer and the like.

Found to be talking bollocks, according to his siblings.

 

[subversplat]

I almost feel guilty about being on good terms with my whole family when I hear about stories like these. How fucking odd

 

[mrsfran]

I read them. I find they're a good antidote to the "I was abused, my parents wouldn't let me have a puppy" culture. They make me feel grateful for my own life - if ever I take my own life for granted they're a reminder that many people have had it a lot, lot worse.

That said, sometime it's prurient. There's no point denying it, the darker side of human life is intruiging.