Not everyone will be able to read this book.
The story opens with the horrendous details of childhood sexual abuse told fearlessly in the disassociated voice so common among those who survive such trauma. Readers may want to close the book and walk away because the human suffering is so raw. But, those who have survived such attacks know that this turning away is what the world perpetually does to the abused; the ones who must emotionally disconnect in order to survive another day with some sanity still intact.
I beg the reader to stay put, sit down, read, and learn.
According to United States statistics, 1 out of 4 girls are sexually abused before reaching age 18. ( Statistics, Prevalence and Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse )
ONE OUT OF EVERY FOUR GIRLS.
I believe it is safe to say that for many of us statistics are just numbers. Considering the immensity of those six words written above one can hardly wrap their brain around what these numbers reflect.
The best way to begin understanding the impact of sexual abuse is to learn one story at a time.
Feather Man is a such a story. This book is a chronicle of the never ceasing burning pain that smolders within the psyche when the child’s body has been violated. The narrator/victim, Sookie, describes the suffering as a chook* pecking at her heart.
Author, Rhyll McMaster, masterfully draws from her lifetime as a poet to maintain two reflections of Sookie’s journey into womanhood: Sookie’s life as reflected by her relationship with four men, and Sookie’s interior dialogue that presses the story forward to an unexpected conclusion.
The author states that Feather Man is strictly a work of fiction, but her writing completely encompasses those subtle nuances that a survivor will recognize instantaneously. Rhyll McMaster has channeled and put into words the silences that keep sexual abuse locked deep in the mind. Any one who has survived trauma such as Sookie’s will certainly find a narrative voice that may help to define the darkness that has rooted deeply into the injured heart.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who works with survivors of sexual abuse, those who have been some way along on the journey to healing from abuse, and to anyone who truly desires insight into the interior lives of many women.
*chicken
The story opens with the horrendous details of childhood sexual abuse told fearlessly in the disassociated voice so common among those who survive such trauma. Readers may want to close the book and walk away because the human suffering is so raw. But, those who have survived such attacks know that this turning away is what the world perpetually does to the abused; the ones who must emotionally disconnect in order to survive another day with some sanity still intact.
I beg the reader to stay put, sit down, read, and learn.
According to United States statistics, 1 out of 4 girls are sexually abused before reaching age 18. ( Statistics, Prevalence and Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse )
ONE OUT OF EVERY FOUR GIRLS.
I believe it is safe to say that for many of us statistics are just numbers. Considering the immensity of those six words written above one can hardly wrap their brain around what these numbers reflect.
The best way to begin understanding the impact of sexual abuse is to learn one story at a time.
Feather Man is a such a story. This book is a chronicle of the never ceasing burning pain that smolders within the psyche when the child’s body has been violated. The narrator/victim, Sookie, describes the suffering as a chook* pecking at her heart.
Author, Rhyll McMaster, masterfully draws from her lifetime as a poet to maintain two reflections of Sookie’s journey into womanhood: Sookie’s life as reflected by her relationship with four men, and Sookie’s interior dialogue that presses the story forward to an unexpected conclusion.
The author states that Feather Man is strictly a work of fiction, but her writing completely encompasses those subtle nuances that a survivor will recognize instantaneously. Rhyll McMaster has channeled and put into words the silences that keep sexual abuse locked deep in the mind. Any one who has survived trauma such as Sookie’s will certainly find a narrative voice that may help to define the darkness that has rooted deeply into the injured heart.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who works with survivors of sexual abuse, those who have been some way along on the journey to healing from abuse, and to anyone who truly desires insight into the interior lives of many women.
*chicken
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