THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE

The Education Of Little Tree by Forrest Carter.

Published: New York: Delacorte Press/E. Friede 1976

Set in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression, The education of Little Tree was purported to be the memoir an orphaned young boy, raised by his grandparents in the Native American Cherokee way of life. His idyllic childhood is soon shattered when he’s taken away by whites to an orphanage where he suffers beatings and racial taunts. The authenticity of the book was called into question when it was revealed that Forrest Carter was actually Asa Earl Carter, a strong segregationist and suspected member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist.

Annotation: Novelist, Fantastic Fiction, MagillOnLiterature Plus, Amazon.

MISHA: A MEMOIRE OF THE HOLOCAUST YEARS

Misha: A Mémoire Of The Holocaust Years by Misha Defonseca.

Published : Massachusetts: Mt. Ivy Press, 1997.

Fraudulently published as a memoir by author Misha Defonseca -- real name, Monique de Wael -- Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years tells the story of Misha, an 7 year-old Jewish girl from Brussels as she searches for her parents who have been taken by the Nazis. Walking thousands of miles to find them, she survives by stealing food, pilfering crops, hiding in the forest and eventually befriends a pack of wolves. Full of passion, terror and courage, the book has been compared to The diary of Anne Frank.

Sources

Cover image: Amazon

Citation: Amazon

Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon

THE HAND THAT SIGNED THE PAPER

The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko.

Published: St. Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin 1994.

Australian author, Helen Demidenko -- real name Helen Darville - won the prestigious Miles Franklin prize for this novel, which was later found to be hoax. The book is told from the point of view of Ukrainian peasant Kateryna.  She along with brothers Vitali and Evheny witness the destruction of the family’s village by Stalinist communists during World War II and side with the Nazis who they hail as liberators. Demidenko who had claimed to be of Ukrainian background later recanted this and the claim that she had based the book on her family's history.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist

Annotation: Goodreads, Literature resource centre, Fantastic Fiction and Amazon

A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

A Rock And A Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story by Anthony Godby Johnson.

Published: New York: Crown, 1993.

Penned by Vicki Fraginals, under the pseudonym Anthony Godby Johnson to tell the story of a sexually abused, HIV-positive 14-year-old boy, A rock and a hard place is a prime example of literary fraud, presented as a memoir. The story is unsentimental and extraordinarily depraved in its descriptions of child sexual abuse, his neglectful parents beating him and depriving him of food. Johnson eventually escapes to a life on the mean streets of New York before being rescued by a pair of social workers, finally finding a loving family. Written with maturity and wisdom, it is ultimately, an adolescent’s personal account of overcoming abuse and terror.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Amazon

Annotation: Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Nobel

LOVE AND CONSEQUENCES

Love And Consequences: A Memoir Of Hope And Survival by Margaret B Jones. 

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2008.

Described as ‘Urban Fiction’, Love and Consequences is the memoir of a mixed-race young girl as she struggles to survive the brutality of life in South Central Los Angeles. The story is one of strength and hope, with the protagonist overcoming urban poverty, crime, drug abuse and violence, eventually breaking free to graduate from high school and then college. Written in the slang of the city’s most prominent street gangs -- the Bloods and Crips -- Jones explains that she chose to “write as we chose to speak in the world of my childhood." The book was later recalled by its publisher, Riverhead books and retailers after it was revealed the author was in fact, Margaret Seltzer, a white, affluent American writer who went so far as to speak in an African-American dialect during radio interviews in order to promote the book.

Sources

Cover image: Novelist

Citation: Novelist

Annotation: Literature Resource Center and Novelist

THE PAINTED BIRD

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski. 

Published: New York: Grove Press, 1995.

Polish-American novelist, Jerzy Kosinski wrote The Painted Bird, about the brutal mistreatment of a six year-old boy -- a war refugee who is on the run from the Nazis -- at the hands of Eastern European villagers. Dark haired and olive skinned, the villagers mistake him for a Jew or a Gypsy and treat him cruelly. The writing style and imagery is simple which aptly conveys the horror of the Holocaust. There has been much speculation about the book’s authorship following its release and Kosinski himself has faced accusations of plagarism.

Sources

Cover image: Wikipidea

Citation: Novelist.

Annotation: Fantastic Fiction, MagillOnLiterature Plus and Novelist.

THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things by J. T. Leroy

Published: New York: Bloomsbury, 2000.

Heartbreaking and grim, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a collection of autobiographical short stories told from the perspective of Jeremiah, an abused young boy on the run from small town America who ends up on the streets of San Francisco. Following on from his debut novel, Sarah, the author J. T. Leroy reprises two characters, the narrator Jeremiah and his drug addicted prostitute mother, Sarah. This time, the plot focuses on Sarah’s relentless torture of her son and his desperate yearnings for her love and attention in spite of her repeated abuse and abandonment.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist

Annotation: Novelist, Literature Resource Center and Goodreads

A CHILD CALLED "IT"

A Child Called "It" : One Child's Courage To Survive by David J. Pelzer 

Published: Omaha, Neb. : Omaha Press Pub. Co., 1993.

Widely considered as the first of the “misery lit” genre, A Child Called “It” is the disturbing personal account of author David Pelzer, who was tortured as a young boy by his sadistic, alcoholic mother who starved and brutally beat him, to the point of his becoming her slave. Eventually Pelzer manages to overcome the extreme abuse to lead a scarred, yet ultimately successful life. The book is well known for it's graphic and morbid content.
There remains doubt as to the veracity of Pelzer’s claims in the book, with both The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers noting the lack of details authenticating his recollections.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: UTS Library Catalogue

Annotation: Fiction Connection, Goodreads and Amazon.

SATAN'S UNDERGROUND

Satan's Underground: The Extraordinary Story Of One Woman's Escape by Lauren Stratford

Published: Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1991.

Purported to be the true account of a young girl’s struggle to escape from a sadistic satanic cult, Satan’s Underground was written by Laurel Rose Wilson, who adopted the name Lauren Stratford while writing the book. The 'memoir' tells in disturbing and graphic detail, years of sexual and ritualistic abuse at the hands of Satanic cult members and acts of human sacrifice and child abuse. Eventually, Lauren’s strong faith and belief in God help her survive these horrors. Laurel Rose Wilson was later revealed to be a Christian Evangelist with a history of mental illness and making false allegations of abuse. 

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Goodreads

Annotation: Goodreads and Amazon