(no subject)
What is going on with the current fad for books about horrible, abused childhoods? My local Waterstones now has a whole section labelled Tragic Life Stories: I can't even begin to list in how many ways this is wrong. The memoirs all have respectably blurred photos of crying children on the front cover, and preposterous titles like Daddy, Don't Touch Me There, or It's Our Little Secret. (I thought I had made those up, but it seems like the second one at least already exists.)
I blame Dave Pelzer - which is ironic in a way, because I gather that was pretty much his parents' position too. I can understand wanting to write it all down as some expiatory act of therapy, but I can't understand why so many people want to read about it. Whom does this help? I just find it all very creepy and morbid (not to mention totally devoid of any literary merit). I mean if I wanted to fill my free time with sexual abuse and human misery, I would have moved to Hull.