Saturday, September 27, 2014

Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock

I saw this book as a meandering story of abuse.  I couldn't figure out where it was all leading for the longest time.  That being said, I was shocked when I figured out that Emma wasn't real.  I didn't see it coming.  After that, I saw the book in a different light - and I certainly appreciated it more.  Thinking back, there were so many clues that the author left us that I didn't pick up on. One big one, of course, was Carrie's mother never acknowledging Emma; also Grandma only shaving off Carrie's hair and not Emma's; only Carrie being offered a job at the drugstore; Carried being taught how to use a gun while Emma watched - and sometimes Emma wasn't there at all.

I saw Emma as an imaginary friend.  It was through Emma that Carrie was able to see herself: eating dog food, her rats nest hair, the evidence of where the chains were around her neck, being beaten so hard that she couldn't stand or walk to her bedroom, the sexual abuse by Richard, and the thought of using the gun to kill Richard.  Carrie couldn't acknowledge that all of this was happening to her, so a lot of it she put on Emma.  Carrie was the "favored one" by her mother and in order to be her mother's favorite, she had to make up a "least favorite" sister.  It has been a long time since I have read Sybil, so I may need to refresh myself on what determines a split personality, but I really saw Emma as an imaginary sister.

It's a very disturbing book.  The most despicable character is Carrie's mother, hands down.  I can accept "battered woman's syndrome" as a reason that women don't leave their batterers.  What I can't accept is a mother not protecting her child - at any cost.  There were people in their lives that would have helped them, had she let them.

I think it's the small town mentality that "things happen and you need to stay out of other people's business that causes people to not report obvious abuse.  Carrie's school teacher did try to get Carrie to talk to her, being a child of abuse herself, but when Carrie wouldn't acknowledge it, she just let it go.  The drug store owner also made a feeble attempt with Carrie's mother. Some of these people probably suffered some sort of abuse in their lives at the hands of their relatives or others.  I know they felt sorry for Carrie, but also felt helpless to really know how to help her.

Wendy's Rating: ****

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