Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery - Softcover

Weaver Francisco, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060930764 ISBN 13: 9780060930769

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2000

Synopsis

"Patricia Francisco has done that rare thing; write with honesty about the act of evil and about her slow trudge to health in its aftermath. Her story is important for every woman to hear and every man to know. This book is impressive and very moving." — Louise Erdrich

In this intimate memoir, Patricia Weaver Francisco tells of her fifteen-year journey to recognize and overcome the effects of rape. Francisco explores key aspects of a women's life in the aftermath of rape—passion, marriage, solitude, childbirth, motherhood.

She invites the reader into her life and into the questions raised by a crime with no obvious solutions or easy answers. We see the dimensions of a human struggle often kept hidden from view. While there are millions of rape survivors in the United States, rape is still too often left out of our personal and cultural conversations. In Telling, Francisco has found a language for the secret grief carried by people who have survived rape.

Describing her fear during and after the rape in a visceral style, Francisco details her transformation of trauma into strength. This transformation begins by learning to talk about rape, to understand the resistance she encounters in herself and others.

She chronicles a complex journey and wrestles with spiritual despair, outrage, and a longing for justice. But with awareness comes the return of pleasure, hunger, and desire. She reminds us how "beautiful the dignity of truth can be" and inspires in us a desire to listen, to know the truths that can transform our own lives. She also gives us a clear portrait of the tragic consequences for the survivor—and our culture—when we neglect this human story.

Told with grace and a soul-stirring eloquence, Telling is, in the end, a form of power. It will leave you with a sense of hope and a renewed appreciation for life's possibilities. A compelling book, Telling will push the conversations that can bring hope and healing to the women who need it, and to their loved ones trying to help them.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Fransisco teaches creative writing in the MFA Program at Hamline University. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

From the Back Cover

She invites the reader into her life and into the questions raised by a crime with no obvious solutions or easy answers. We see the dimensions of a human struggle often kept hidden from view. While there are an estimated twelve million rape survivors in the United States, rape is still unspeakable, left out of our personal and cultural conversation. In Telling, Francisco has found a language for the secret grief carried by men and women who have survived rape.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Telling

A Memoir of Rape and RecoveryBy Francisco, Patricia Weaver

Perennial

Copyright © 2004 Patricia Weaver Francisco
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060930764

Bedtime Story

The light cast by the red lamp near Andre's bed is too low for reading, so I switch on the glowing globe that illuminates a green and pink world. We arrange ourselves on his narrow bed in the corner, settle down to read Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen." Andre slouches beside me, willing to nestle close, to let my arm drape around his body as I read.

"Is this going to be boring?" He eyes the thick book, suspicious of the dreamy cover illustration of a girl riding in a golden coach with a huge black crow.

"Maybe in parts," I defer, willing to force this tale on him for my own purposes. There are some words I want him to take in deeply. "This story is told in seven parts. We'll go slow, just a bit at a time. By the end, we'll know the whole story."

"Will it be scary?"

"Only in the beginning."

He sinks lower.

"You know, it's about a girl and a boy who are best friends--like you and Sofi," I continue in the voice of the supplicant. He has begun to resist the books I endorse with my enthusiasm. The bedtime story hour belongs to him. "The boy gets lost and the girl tries--"

"Does she find him?" He sits up a bit, resting on his elbows.

"That's the mystery part."

I can see by the way he collapses back onto the bed that I have just responded badly. I ignore him, loving his dear face in the light of the glowing world. I know this story. He is my son, and I want him to know it, too. For "The Snow Queen" is a story of the journey back, rendered as dramatic and harrowing as the event that precipitated the loss. It's a complicated journey, longer than any tale we're used to. The heroine makes mistakes, finds help in strange places, never stops looking for what's been lost. I begin at the beginning.

"The Snow Queen"

by Hans Christian Andersen

The First Part,

which deals with the mirror and its splinters.

Well, now, let's begin--and when we come to the end of the story we shall know more than we know now! There was once a wicked demon--one of the very worst--the Devil himself! One day he was in a really good humour because he had made a mirror which had the power of making everything good and beautiful reflected in it disappear almost to nothing, while all that was bad and ugly to look at showed up clearly and appeared far worse than it really was. In this mirror the loveliest of landscapes looked just like boiled spinach, and even the nicest people looked hideous or else they stood on their heads and had no bodies.

The story goes on. The Devil's students at the School for Demons try to take the mirror to heaven to fool the angels, but it slips out of their hands and falls to earth, splintering into billions of pieces. Some of the pieces are as small as a grain of sand and fly into people's eyes to make them see only what is bad in the world. And some get caught in people's chests, turning their hearts to ice.Continues...

Excerpted from Tellingby Francisco, Patricia Weaver Copyright © 2004 by Patricia Weaver Francisco. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060930764
• ISBN 13: 9780060930769
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240