Review: A heartfelt journey from abuse to transformation
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 17, 2013
In a spare and powerful narrative, this heartfelt memoir takes us on a human journey through an abusive childhood in 1940's South Africa under Apartheid. Greta enjoyed a relatively privileged childhood in apartheid Johannesburg but her life with an unstable, long-suffering mother, an absent father and a cruel older brother become the foundation for her discontent. She weaves in her Jewish culture, the politics of the times with Apartheid and her love of music and piano playing in a way that brings me into her experience. Greta is a child piano prodigy. Her mother focuses on her piano playing as a means of building herself up and frequently makes demands of Greta to practice and perform for the benefit of the family image. Her mother who is forced to work as an office assistant, longs to be a "trophy wife of a rich Jewish businessman" and takes every opportunity to let Greta know of her displeasure. She demands that Greta keep her company because she (the mother) may " have a heart attack."  She also tries to school her in the fine art of seducing a man. Greta's love of music becomes her pathway to escape the pain of abuse and neglect but her mother's influence seeps into her first marriage to Ralph which lasts less than a year.Greta's ability to confront her personal demons honestly is admirable. She moves back and forth in time to weave a compelling narrative of loss and searching. Desperate to leave South Africa and the clutches of her mother, Greta applies for and wins a music scholarship in the United States and reunites with her father. Returning to South Africa soon after, she realizes her relationship with her mother has not changed and she returns to California to face a series of incestuous encounters with her brother. In later years as a reporter and editor for the Los Angeles Times, she receives a phone call that her mother has died. She reflects upon her losses and attempts to reconcile her painful past with her present life, where she finds solace and growth in writing.