Many readers likely know very little about how it feels to grow up in Liberia, Africa or what it’s like to escape a virulent war, become separated from one’s mother for much of childhood, spend time in refugee camps, be the unwelcome and sometimes mistreated guest of extended family members, or immigrate to North America where everyone speaks a language different from your native tongue. Author Arnelle Cruz has gone through all of this as viscerally described in the potent memoir THE SURVIVOR STORY OF ARNELLE. Cruz also details first-hand knowledge of sexual violation beginning at a young age and having immediate family members often behaving in less-than-healthy or appropriate ways.
While it is not necessarily easy or light reading to visit scenes, for example, of the author–finally reunited with her mother–discovering that her parent is the sort of person who chooses to do things like become the sexual partner of the love of her own mother’s (Cruz’s grandmother’s) life, this does feel like an important story. Arnelle provides no easy answers, nor scenes of the her eventual marriage and starting a (hopefully) more healthy family of her own, nor does she offer specific morals to the tales she tells. Yet there is still a happy ending, which is the fact that, while many people subjected to such dreadful experiences wouldn’t make it out alive, as the title of the book indicates, Arnelle Cruz survived. Particularly enjoyable is the author’s at times African-inflected way with words: “I put lots of warm water in the tub and gave her a bath, dried her up, and asked her to sit on the lid of the toilet…” along with her connection to Jehovah God, to whom she prays often, finding solace as well as sometimes miraculous-seeming protection from her relationship there. Future disappointment–in the vein of facing nasty judge bullying and not making it past the audition process in Canada’s version of the popular American Idol show notwithstanding–this woman’s indomitable spirit has gone on to create herself: A Life. This should gain the book empathetic supporters and followers from many corners.
Compelling and forceful, THE SURVIVOR STORY OF ARNELLE by Arnelle Cruz might well become essential reading for those interested in the kinds of ordeals other human beings have endured and survived.
~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader