A Child Called It – 1995 – A True story

I think it’s some kind of safety mechanism in the human nature that starts to doubt the authenticity of a story like A Child called it. It’s too gruesome, too horrible so it cannot be true. It’s easy to think that way. Are there really people in this world that can be this sadistic to a child? Well, since it’s claimed to be a true story, apparently so.

For some reason, I feel that stories like this are spellbinding to read. Even though I feel that the story, in this case, become a bit more repetitive than I would have liked it. It’s also a pretty short book. About 130 pages or so I believe. I finished it within a few hours.

I realized that it’s impossible to describe things in another way if it’s true events but I would have liked to understand the reason behind the cruelty. It doesn’t seem to be sexual.

As I understand it, based on what this book says, it’s just Dave that is treated bad, tortured even. The other children are part of the family. Dave is ‘it’. He has to sleep in the basement and doesn’t get any food. Therefore He has to steal it. and if he does he gets double punishment. Because if he steals he gets beaten. There’s no way to do it right.

But the worst part many times is the father. Ha knows what going on but doesn’t do anything about it. That seems even stranger to me, to see you won child being tortured for years and only give comfort by showing compassion in words only. And finally leaving the family because he ‘couldn’t take it’ anymore. What a spineless coward!

I will read the book following this one when I get the chance too. There are at least two more by Dave Pelzer and one or two by one of his brothers. This will be a very interesting experience. I have the other books by Dave so I guess I will read them first.

Disclaimer: The original post was lost and I’ve tried to recreate it as good as I could from memory. I don’t always remember all the details I felt in the original writing moment so there might be some differences. To keep the tempo up I’ve tried to be as short and to the point as possible.