Review by Booklist Review
At the molten core of Ensler's trailblazing and empowering work as a playwright (The Vagina Monologues, 1998), nonfiction writer (In the Body of the World, 2013), and activist is the profound trauma caused by her now-long-dead father's sexual and physical abuse. In the absence of any apology from him, Ensler has imagined one, courageously composing an explicit confessional monologue in an attempt to fathom the horrifying mystery of why a parent would deliberately try to destroy a child. We learn that as a boy he was brutally abused and always feared having children. Sure enough, he's undone by his initial awe over his baby daughter, and, as she grows, his tortured and angry self, the Shadow Man, takes over. He graphically recounts his monstrous behavior, from the sexual violence that hurled a joyful child into the abyss of depression and self-loathing to nearly murderous attacks and diabolical psychological assaults. Ultimately, he seeks to peg his crimes to what it means to be a man, as dictated by the ingrained patriarchal blueprint. Ensler's transfixing, appalling, revelatory, and cathartic performance deepens her mission of transmuting her pain into clarion stories that engender understanding, openness, healing, and liberation.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This daring and resounding work by the renowned and influential Ensler will be launched with a blockbuster publicity campaign and a multicity book tour.--Donna Seaman Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This bold, brutal, and ultimately healing narrative by playwright Ensler exposes the origin story of her ground-breaking play The Vagina Monologues through searing reflections on incest and abuse. Ensler assumes the voice of her father, Arthur, who died 31 years earlier, in a tormented letter addressed to "Dear Evie." Following a repressed, abusive childhood, business executive Arthur crafted a charming persona as "a synthetic remedy... to soul sickness." He married at age 50 and became a reluctant father with Ensler's birth in 1953. Infatuated with "the erotic essence of your tenderness," he began fondling the five-year-old Ensler and raped her at nine, knowing that it made her feel like "a dirty shameful girl." Physical abuse toward Ensler escalated through her teenage years: "I wanted you dead... I had to kill what I had already destroyed." Ensler writes in the introduction, "I have had to conjure much" of the personal history that Arthur never shared, and reimagining the events in this uninhibited exploration of an abusive father's motives, madness, and guilt sets her on the path to forgiveness. In the end, Arthur becomes aware of "the tortuous limbo I made inside you"; he apologizes, and is set free. This is a powerful and disturbing story that Ensler writes with grace an aplomb. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Best-selling author and playwright Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) writes an apology in the form of a letter from her late father; the words she needed him to say to her. Ensler states that she tried to allow him to speak in his voice; however, from its outset, this candid and unapologetic book is her reclamation of language, of story. The author tells the difficult account of sexual abuse that began when she was five, from her abuser's perspective, interwoven with her understanding of tactics such as grooming and manipulation. Beyond its power and personal bravery, this is a reintroduction to Ensler's smart, sophisticated writing. She alludes to John Milton's Paradise Lost to show how a man can create a hell inside of himself, and uses her father's voice to grab hold of the master narratives that shape culture and explain how he turned her mother against her. VERDICT Much as The Vagina Monologues made space for people to talk about female sexuality, this book will transform our collective understanding of what an apology for sexual violence can and should be, and how maybe it's more important for survivors to write the script; necessary reading for all.-Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Tony Award-winning playwright and bestselling author excavates the violent truths of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in a painful quest for healing.Told from the perspective of the father who committed countless wrongs against his child, Ensler's (In the Body of the World: A Memoir of Cancer and Connection, 2013, etc.) latest is a chilling portrait from the broken mirror of his memories; only in the final pages will readers find the narrator's candid acceptance of responsibility for this sadistic history. Fully amplifying her father's warped perceptions, the author provides an exacting, revealing glimpse into the psychology of gaslighting from the view of a perpetrator. Ensler effectively unearths tragic betrayals of trust and the multiple terrors survived by her younger self. Her father's twisted attention and attempted sabotages persisted as he notes the criticisms he planted to undercut his daughter's growth and independence at every turn. Paternal contempt followed the author through high school and beyond, and she captures it all in a fevered account that traces periods of resistance, rebellion, self-destruction, creativity, and sobriety in the years she spent seeking to break from the restrictions cast by a father obsessed with violating her agency. Ensler's father is certain to frustrate readers looking for a more concrete sense of justice, and the graphic catalogue of sexual abuses and physical violence will challenge most readers and trigger some. Still, this is a potent, necessary narrative of healing, and the author succeeds in her "attempt to endow my father with the will and the words to cross the border, and speak the language, of apology so that I can finally be free." This imagined voice is as intimate as it is alarming, and Ensler also taps into a broader struggle, seeking to hold all perpetrators of abuse accountable for their actions.Readers searching for full and consistent contrition may be uncomfortable, but those seeking a greater understanding of psychological manipulation will appreciate this powerful examination. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
