August 30, 2012

Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso

Title: Tiger Tiger
Author: Margaux Fragoso
Format: PB
Pages: 314
Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir

Publisher: Picador, 2012
ISBN-13:   978-1250002426  
Series: Stand Alone

Synopsis:  A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title — Tiger, Tiger is a Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction title for 2011A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of 2011 title One summer day, Margaux Fragoso meets Peter Curran at the neighborhood swimming pool, and they begin to play. She is seven; he is fifty-one. When Peter invites her and her mother to his house, the little girl finds a child's paradise of exotic pets and an elaborate backyard garden. Her mother, beset by mental illness and overwhelmed by caring for Margaux, is grateful for the attention Peter lavishes on her, and he creates an imaginative universe for her, much as Lewis Carroll did for his real-life Alice.

In time, he insidiously takes on the role of Margaux's playmate, father, and lover. Charming and manipulative, Peter burrows into every aspect of Margaux's life and transforms her from a child fizzing with imagination and affection into a brainwashed young woman on the verge of suicide. But when she is twenty-two, it is Peter, ill, and wracked with guilt, who kills himself, at the age of sixty-six.

Told with lyricism, depth, and mesmerizing clarity, Tiger, Tiger vividly illustrates the healing power of memory and disclosure. This extraordinary memoir is an unprecedented glimpse into the psyche of a young girl in free fall and conveys to readers, including parents and survivors of abuse, just how completely a pedophile enchants his victim and binds her to him.


Review:  This is a really tough book to read.  It was hard for me to understand in places how no one knew what was happening to the little girl named Margaux.  I did find it to be a well-written book, but I didn't like it as much as other people seem to have.

Rating:  8 / 10

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