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Spurred by the #MeToo movement, the talented author (actress, playwright, songwriter, and accountant) of this thematic memoir examines the hidden, long-term effects of covert abuse in her childhood. Covert abuse, the less dramatic but equally damaging form of sexual, mental, or physical abuse, is common in all cultures and at every level of society. Children who escape ongoing sexual molestation or more violent forms of physical and mental abuse still struggle in their adult lives, puzzled by the confusion and anxiety that overtly abused victims endure.
Martin suffered not only from the usual uninvited sexual groping by boys and men that happens to nearly every woman alive but also experienced a peculiar form of mental, sexual incest caused by her father's inappropriate emotional boundaries. It took two years in therapy in her fifties before Martin unraveled the mystery of why her father's sharing of private information about her mother created ongoing discomfort for her even though he was a supportive parent otherwise. When she gently confronted her father at a family gathering after her epiphany, he quickly shut down and changed the subject.
Martin's fascinating life includes a long stint in the 1970s with the well-known international musical Up With People. She outlines the progression of highs and lows during her childhood, young adulthood, and middle-age years and into the present. Her heartfelt, frank, and sincere writing keeps pages turning. The narrative is a much-needed look at covert abuse that will encourage any woman or man who has experienced it to seek the peace and healing that they deserve. "The damage done at the start, unrealized and compounded, could have been stopped by self-awareness and the realization that I had, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the power all along to change my destiny."
RECOMMENDED by the US Review