In 1991, eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop in California by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. She remained in captivity for eighteen years, confined to a series of tents and sheds hidden in the backyard of the Garridos' suburban home. This memoir documents her daily life during those two decades, detailing the physical abuse, the birth of her two daughters fathered by her captor, and the psychological mechanisms she used to survive. Dugard utilizes her actual diary entries from the period of her confinement to illustrate her isolation and the gradual loss of her identity while living under the constant threat of violence.
Readers interested in the logistics of long-term trauma recovery and the complexities of Stockholm syndrome will find a primary account of psychological endurance here. The book is written for those who study human behavior under extreme duress and the failure of parole systems to monitor known offenders. Readers walk away with a specific understanding of how a victim maintains a sense of self through dissociation and the immense practical difficulties of reintegrating into a society that has aged twenty years in their absence.
Inward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2011
- Language
- EN
