What I've been reading: Books No. 11 & 12

Book No. 11 was "I Was #87: A Deaf Woman's Ordeal of Misdiagnosis, Institutionalization, and Abuse" by Anne M. Bolander. This memoir tells the real story of Anne Bolander, who was misdiagnosed as retarded when she was actually deaf. She endures heart-breaking abuse both at a privately-run home and from her birth family. She experiences small kindnesses from her grandmother and from the nuns at another home where she is correctly diagnosed as deaf. But her family continues to treat her as if she's retarded, and she experiences horrific abuse and neglect at their hands. She finally gets a job and makes enough money to get a car and move out on her own, only to be repeatedly taken advantage of by a series of "friends" who use her for her home and her money. Anne is so starved for love and friendship that she loses apartments, cars, and over $80,000 in cash to various "friends" who take advantage of her. By the end of the book, she's still a damaged person, but she makes some real friends, finds a good therapist, and a woman (her co-author) who helps her tell her life story.

I've had this book on my "to read" list for a while and put it off because I expected it to be depressing, considering the subject matter. But while this first-person narrative does contain very sad and difficult themes, Anne's voice will pull you along and make you want to know what happens next. If you're anything like me, you'll be holding your breath, waiting for her luck to change and for something good to happen to her. It was hard to put down, and I finished it in 3 days.

Book No. 12 was "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates. In this novel, the well-to-do farm family, the Mulvaneys, are having an idyllic American life on High Point farm until something terrible happens to the only daughter of the family, Marianne. The incident starts the slow disintegration of the family, each parent and each of her 3 brothers unable to find justice but also unable to let it go. I haven't read a Joyce Carol Oates book yet that I haven't liked. I really enjoyed her attention to the secret mechanics of family life in this one. I found the way she made pets into characters was wonderful as well. Small spoiler: I do roll my eyes a little bit at the character of Mike Mulvaney Sr., yet another man who makes something terrible done to a woman he loves *all about him* and causes more harm to her in the process. Her brother Patrick also makes Marianne's problem all about his need for revenge, too, but at least he is not the one who banishes Marianne from the family like a leper.  Recommended.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )