This book, however, is in the spirit of Corrie ten Boom or Viktor E. Frankl or even Immaculee Ilibagiza--people who experience horrific abuse and then do more than rise above--they shine, they become larger and greater. They find God and hold on tight. They forgive, they move on to help others. This is the story of Elizabeth Smart. My favorite quote from the book is this: "As of this writing, I am twenty-five years old. I have been alive for 307 months. Nine of those months were pretty terrible. But 298 of those months have been very good. I have been happy. I have been very blessed. Who knows how many more months I have to live? But even if I died tomorrow, nine out of 307 seems like pretty good odds. Looking at it that way, I don't think I have much to complain about." Her whole approach to telling her story reflects this positive way of thinking.
I also appreciated her no-frills account of her experience. She did not shrink from telling what happened, but she didn't go into grubby details. That's another thing I don't really like--our culture's almost salacious enjoyment of horrific tales of crime and abuse. Elizabeth did not indulge in lurid descriptions or nightmarish details (not that the whole experience wasn't nightmarish!!). I appreciated that. It made it easier to read and it made her stolid determination to survive really stand out above the overwhelming fact of her imprisonment and abuse.
So, the book was well worth reading. Elizabeth Smart seems to be a truly good person who has gracefully and courageously survived an experience that was designed to crush her and indeed would crush many of us.
Sex: Well, she was raped continually, that was clear. There were no descriptive details
Bad language: nope
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