Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story Of A Forgotten Child (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
Are we now living in the age of Full Disclosure when everything is revealed about what people do to each other, the real truth about what human beings are? When it comes to dresses being paraded with presidential semen stains still upon them, or the latest youtube viral video horrors, you may think so. But - although it seems we have reached a plateau I think there is a way to go. The misery memoir, of which A Boy Called It is the ur-text, is a step along the way. Misery memoirs - my Waterstone's has a whole wall of them. Damaged was one of the first.But here's what is still to be revealed: the perpetrators' stories. We might be talking about domestic abuse or rape or war crimes, but there's nothing from them ever. Ever. Probably on the very reasonable grounds that they're all nauseating lowlifes who should be given rat poison rather than a pen and paper, and also that they'll lie and try to make out it was all because of their own painful childhoods or that the rape and the war crime was consensual. The depraved are either smart enough to know they really shouldn't tell the truth, or stupid enough not to be able to anyway. So it seems that at present we believe that victims always tell the truth and perpetrators always lie. Can this be true? Probably not, but I think we'll have to live with that for a long time yet. I doubt that we'll ever get the perpetrator's stories. Why would we want to? Because no man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; because I am involved in mankind. (That last bit's by John Donne, not me!) As regards Damaged, as I read I found the good angel of belief and the bad angel of unbelief grappling with each other in the space just behind my left ear. Alas for Cathy Glass, she writes very dully and competently except when it comes to dialogue, when we get stuff that sounds straight out of The Exorcist :Jodie [aged 8] spun round to face me. Her features were hard and distorted. "No" she shouted, in a gruff masculine voice. "Get out or I'll rip you to pieces. Get out bitch!"... She advanced towards me with her hands clawed, baring her teeth. "I'm not Jodie" she growled, "I'm Reg. Get out or I'll fucking kill you."'I know there are abuse cases as bad as this one but this kind of stuff inadvertently gives the abuse the patina of bad fiction. Exactly what the perps count on, of course - No one will believe you . Anyway, this is a straightforward account of one foster woman's total nightmare, the nastiest most ungovernable 8 year old which everyone else had given up on. Once again the social workers get it in the neck - all the signs of familial abuse were there for years and were not spotted, the stupid feeble social workers were intimidated by the family, same old same old. I would have been interested in more detail about the degenerate birth family but Cathy Glass would not have had any access to that info. And I would have liked an uplifting and hopeful end to this revolting tale. So here's my full disclosure: there isn't one. This damaged child was not healed. Life's like that.
Infância Perdida é daquelas histórias que, sem querermos, se enraízam no nosso pensamento e nos deixam dias a pensar sobre ela. Pelo seu conteúdo emocional, não é um livro fácil de ler. Confesso que a repulsa e o nojo foram aumentando gradualmente. Quando pensava que as coisas não podiam ser piores, chegava uma nova revelação que me fazia parar a leitura para assimilar tudo aquilo que ia acontecendo.Cathy Glass é uma mãe de acolhimento que recebe em sua casa crianças que são retiradas à família por diversas razões. As crianças ficam com ela até a família reunir condições para as voltar a acolher ou quando os serviços judiciais decretam outro tipo de medidas, como a adopção, por exemplo.Neste livro, Cathy relata-nos os momentos em que viveu com Jodie, uma menina de 7 anos com uma história de vida ainda bastante desconhecida aos olhos das várias famílias por onde passou e onde permanecia por pouco tempo. Cathy percebeu o desafio que lhe estava para chegar às mães, mas agarrou-o com uma mestria e determinação muitas vezes superior à de um profissional.Jodie apresentou-se como uma criança bastante perturbada. Logo de início, e por aquilo que ia sendo descrito, eu coloquei a hipótese de uma perturbação da personalidade, mas estava muito longe de imaginar os contornos por detrás desta perturbação. Foi duro ler sobre aquilo que Jodie foi obrigada a viver. Foi duro ver que, por pouco, aqueles que tanto mal lhe fizeram iam ficar impunes. Mesmo assim, a justiça não foi totalmente feita.Infelizmente a realidade de Jodie não é a única. São várias as crianças que não conhecem os contornos de uma infância feliz e saudável. Estas histórias enchem-me sempre de tristeza, fazem-me sentir impotente. Eu sei que não podemos querer salvar o mundo. Não está nas nossas mãos conseguir combater tudo aquilo que de mau há no mundo, mas crianças na situação de Jodie mereciam ser salvas o mais rapidamente possível. Neste livro, Cathy Glass também nos traz a realidade da má prática profissional. Um(a) assistente social tem, por vezes, um volume de trabalho enorme, mas isso não pode justificar o facto de se desligarem dos casos. A assistente social que tomava conta de Jodie cometeu erros muito grandes e que não podem ser justificados pelo excesso de trabalho. Ela estava completamente desligada da Jodie e em nenhum momento se preocupou em tentar estabelecer uma relação com a criança. Mas, tal como há maus profissionais, há também aqueles que são capazes de atender às necessidades destas crianças e proporcionar-lhes formas de diminuir o sofrimento. Na história de Jodie destaco o papel da assistente social Jill, que apesar do caso não ser da responsabilidade dela, sempre se preocupou com a criança e também o papel da psicóloga que se preocupou genuinamente com a criança e procurou um espaço adequado para o futuro de Jodie.
What do You think about Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story Of A Forgotten Child (2007)?
This was such an intriguing book, I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever I had to lay it down. The author is a natural story teller, the book is filled with her and her family's emotional pain while fostering a little girl named Jodie. She will quickly draw you into the sad and tragic life of this little girl. Even though I suspected what had happened to Jodie, when it was revealed in the book, it sent not only dread but shivers of fear through me to know that this happens and is happening to children all over the world as we speak. Unthinkable that parents could do something so vile to their own child. I admire and respect Cathy Glass for the work she does in helping children, what a wonderful person she is! If you read one book this year it should be this one, it's just so sad that help came too late to truly help Jodie.And on a last note, this book shows how social services breaks down and some of the problems involved with these "so-called" social workers. Cathy does make excuses for some of them but in my opinion there is no room for error when we are talking about the safety and well-being of chldren. Jodies social worker in the book SHOULD not only be fired from her position but prohibited from working with children ever again. It's people like her that allowed this little girls life to be ruined when they could of saved her when she was first put on the "at risk" list. What is wrong with these people? How could anyone turn a blind eye to such a situation, I just don't understand that. Makes me very sad. Excellent read!! I can't wait to read her other books now.
—Jeannie
I always hate saying that I really liked a book like this. It was an awful, sad, tragic story that made me so angry and made my stomach turn. But it was well written and told a necessary story of a child who went through unspeakable abuse by her parents. Her foster mom, Cathy was so patient and kind and gave so much of herself to the care of Jodie. I admire anyone who could do that. I for one would have found the parents and shot them on sight. Working in an educational setting I think teachers, aides, administrators, etc. should read this book and others like it. It gives an insight into behavior that is so disturbed and disturbing and possibly could help "good" adults recognize some of the signs of abuse in their students if they come across it.
—Shelley
This book made me so angry as to how the system let this poor individual down. The case workers are so overworked and even with a thick file, the case was just passed along. Something really needs to be done to fix this. And the amount of time it takes for a child to get any kind of help once a problem had been identified. I felt so bad for Cathy who tried so hard to help this child, she and her family really went through a lot and I know myself, I would not have had the patience to deal with such a troubled person. I do understand how the justice system could not have pressed charges on her parents without her testimony, and fresh evidence, but, it still angered me to no end. Realizing that she would never lead a normal life because of what they had done to her was very heart wrenching. I am just great full that because of her, her siblings were given a second chance.When I read that Cathy vowed not to continue to foster, I was sadden and then happy to hear that she did take on other children. She had a gift.
—Tanya Brown
