Kruzan powerfully chronicles the story of how she killed the man who abused and trafficked her during her teen years.
A testament to both the capricious nature of the American criminal justice system and the power of hope, Kruzan’s book, co-written by Thomas, is a harrowing and eye-opening account of how easily things can go wrong. Because the author’s story is not unique, it’s that much more heartbreaking. Raised by an abusive single mother in decrepit houses and consistently dangerous circumstances, Kruzan describes her life in unflinching but compassionate detail. Having established at the beginning of the text that she killed a man, who called himself GG, we’re swiftly taken back to the makeshift bedroom of a little girl who only ever wanted to make her mother smile and who could be easily won over with ice cream. The narrative moves fast, giving readers a palpable sense of Kruzan’s helplessness to stop what was happening as she was swept up in physical and sexual abuse and groomed by GG to be a trafficked child. By the time she was 16, she writes, “my biggest wish would be to be rescued from him and everything he had introduced me to.” Before the age of 18, Kruzan was convicted of murder and sent to prison for life without parole. Commendably, amid the many dark parts of the book, the author takes time to highlight, with gratitude, the bright spots. Despite all the people who did her wrong, she is diligent about naming the many people who offered assistance, including teachers, neighbors, friends, and friends’ families. Later, Kruzan writes poignantly about the tenderness and sisterhood she discovered in prison. Overwhelmingly, she notes, her fellow incarcerated women were kind and thoughtful, often victims of the same system that caused the author so many years of suffering.
A must-read for parents, civil servants, and activists.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-31588-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | TRUE CRIME | SURVIVORS & ADVENTURERS
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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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