\nPre-meditated cruelty, the cruelty that oozes from a sense of power\nand entitlement, appears to be a uniquely human attribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThis may be because cruelty demands a set of justifications. Even\npsychopaths know they have to at least pretend their actions are in\nservice of something else. The corporation works well, but the Bible\ncan come in handy for the less successful looking for an excuse. It\nbestows a God-given patriarchal domestic hierarchy and men have been\nusing and abusing it ever since Moses descended from Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nConsider the drunken, dishevelled father, socially belittled in the\nworld but believing himself king of all he surveys as sits at the\nkitchen table, his belligerence cowing his wife and children into\nsilence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt is such a scene Abigail Dean sets in the opening collage of events\nestablishing the harrowing context for her fascinating debut novel,\nGirl A. <\/em>(Page 62)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIt is about Alex \u2013 dubbed Girl A in the press – the one who,\namongst five siblings, escaped from being chained to a filthy bed in\nher father\u2019s House of Horrors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWhat Dean gets right, light as a finely honed radio signal, is how\nnormal the world looks from inside Alex\u2019s head. Until it\u2019s not,\nand even then, it seems almost rational. Given the make up of the\nhuman psyche, it never could be, which is why the character of the\npsychologist is fascinating, as is the mother. And the question is:\nat what stage did the wielding of power shift from benign to abusive,\nand then when did it become cruel? And did the descent into cruelty\ncoincide, or precede the onset of becoming unhinged, insane? Bearing\nin mind, mentally ill people are not necessarily cruel. More often,\nthey tend to make bad decisions, which is what separates Alex from\nher father. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nRarely is mental illness treated with such sensitivity as in Dean\u2019s\nhands. Many protagonists in novels\nare disturbed by a trauma \u2013 it is the pretext for the story \u2013 but\nthe characters are usually making sane decisions in extreme\ncircumstances. Few dare to wander deep into the territory of mental\nillness being the only sane reaction to a situation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIn the rear of all our minds is a\nmedia story about a family found held prisoner by the patriarch,\noften wielding a gun and a bible, or drugs, or all three. Dean\nappears to have done her research, and steps through the bewilderment\nand betrayal inflicted on the children with a touch as light as\nbreath. Alex is imbued with impressive believability that, if one\ndidn\u2019t know better, might want to call authentic. Madness, like a\nfamily\u2019s descent into isolation and abuse, is not a single event,\nit is made up of accumulations and shifts, and we see this reflected\nsuperbly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nGirl A <\/em>is a stunning debut\nnovel that goes behind the headlines and the spaces between the court\ntranscripts to excavate the creeping systemic failures we bury\nbeneath our headlong rush. And she goes further, beyond the door we\nrefuse to acknowledge: in what way would we go mad?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nPublished by Harper Collins, <\/em>Girl\nA is distributed here by Jonathan Ball Publishers. You can\nget it at the Book Lounge.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pre-meditated cruelty, the cruelty that oozes from a sense of power and entitlement, appears to be a uniquely human attribute. This may be because cruelty demands a set of justifications. … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4370,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368\/revisions\/4370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}