Page 45 Review by Jonathan
Me and mommy were the same! Even though Grandma didn't like it…
… We behaved like children.
Mommy's mood changed all the time. I never got used to it.
She'd hit me on the head, or else pinch me hard.
Really, really hard…
I should at this point state that this incredibly powerful, emotionally impactful work is also really, really hard to read. I think you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by what Brenda is put through. Here's the publisher to tell you more about this tale of woe…
Life isn't easy for little Brenda, whose single, teenage mom is immature, selfish, and prone to violent mood swings. Brenda takes care of herself and her mother as best as she can, missing out on many childhood joys to be her own mother's Little Mama.
That is a very accurate diagnosis of this tremendously upsetting tale, which is so well written and full of such excruciating detail I find it difficult to believe it isn't somehow informed by personal experience in some respect.
I must confess, though, I truly have no idea whether it is or isn't. If it is, then it's a tremendously brave fictionalised recounting as seen through the eyes of an adult Brenda, sat in a therapist's study, still portrayed as a young child. If it is purely fictional then I'm just as impressed by the depth of detail brought to the characters and various scenarios that only seem to get darker and darker as Brenda's suffering only ever increases, first at the hands of her mother and then also her mother's boyfriend Vincent, who is the vile father of her younger brother Kevin.
Just to clarify, not that it makes it any less upsetting, but we are talking purely, albeit extensive, emotional and physical abuse, not sexual abuse. It is still very traumatic though.
Seen also occasionally through the eyes of a concerned social worker plus Brenda's adult therapist, this work is an extremely engrossing, if bleak, look at what unfortunately goes on all too often behind closed doors. But it is also a strident testament to what the human spirit can endure and come though out the other side, if not entirely unscathed.
Art-wise I was strongly minded stylistically in places of Nate MARCH / COME AGAIN / TWO DEAD Powell. Heavy on detail, and the black ink, in conjunction with the subdued gray / very pale blue additional shading, it packs a substantial punch more than enough to match the ones meted out by Vincent's balled fists.
