A child called it? Is it fact or fiction?


prisonchaplain
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Is the story fact or fiction?  

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  1. 1. Is the story fact or fiction?

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I thought I had heard awhile back that this story was a fraud. It turns out that the whole thing remains a controversy. One of his brothers agrees, and wrote of his own abuse. Another says it never happened. Pundits seem divided as well.

Dysfunction For Dollars - NYTimes.com

What say ye?

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I thought I had heard awhile back that this story was a fraud. It turns out that the whole thing remains a controversy. One of his brothers agrees, and wrote of his own abuse. Another says it never happened. Pundits seem divided as well.

Dysfunction For Dollars - NYTimes.com

What say ye?

I don't know if the exact story has happened as told... however unfortunately events similar to them have occured before.

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I don't know enough about the story. If someone said it happened to them, barring other suggestions it didn't happen, I'd believe them.

After all, it's not like I'm going to demonize the mother for this. I'm going to try to learn from it, call it a tragedy and let people live their lives. I'm not big on vigilantism.

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FunkyTown...your comments are what many are saying. It may or may not be true, but the story is so powerful, and I was so moved by it, that it's a net good.

Yet, others are saying that if the story is a lie, this guy is making bank by telling disgusting untruths about his own mother. He's also playing with our emotions, and selling a "true story" book that's really just fiction.

The blurring of fact and fiction, "stylized non-fiction"--this all feeds into the post modern notion that there is no ultimate truth, so it's "Whatever works."

Sigh...I'm rambling...but if this guy's story is signficantly not true, then, imho it does matter, and he deserves to be humiliated. If it is, kudos to him for overcoming and setting such a positive example.

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If one brother says it did and one says it didnt then it probably happened and the second brother has blacked it out. I read this and it is a hard book to read. Its hard for me to believe that the things he wrote are out of imagination. The feelings he talks about are the kind you have to be there to know.

Frankly, I hope its all a lie. Wouldnt wish that on any one.

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On the one hand some may wonder how someone could write what Peltzer did, unless he'd really experienced it? On the other, why would both the NYT and Slate columnists risk questioning such a compelling and wrenching story, unless they had deep reservations about its veracity?

Dave Pelzer - Slate Magazine

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There are a lot of people who just dont believe that kind of thing happens. My husband has mpd/did from having a childhood very hard to believe. Now just go to the internet and you will find that there are many many people who dont even believe that mpd/did exists. How could it?

There are evil people in this world. Evil people love to go after kids because they cant fight back. It is hard to believe the things that they will do to children. I would rather believe its lies. Maybe made up for money or sympathy at the very least.

I dont know the writers who question this mans veracity but I also know that a lot of people who have had similar experiences will deny it to the day they die. They can not accept it happened to them or even to people they know. It is simply to painful.

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I picked this book up years ago while I was shopping in kmart. I started reading it, and literally couldn't put it down. I stood in kmart and read it cover to cover. I personally think that it came off as a true story. There were a lot of details that would have been difficult (not impossible) to make up. As a child who grew up in an abusive house, I could almost feel myself there with him. Insofar as siblings backing up his story, I would be surprised if any of them did. We have to realize that their survival depended on making mommy like them, and allowing their brother to take all the abuse helped them survive. They are going to be very damaged, and I don't think their loyalty would be to their brother. I haven't heard anything, other than here, that it may be a fraud. I tend to think it's not, but that is just how I felt reading it.

The other thing is that NO one involved in this story, teachers or siblings, really have anything to gain by this story being true, but they all do if it's not. Can you imagine the shame one would feel if you had been this child's teacher and had missed all the signs and not done anthing to save him? I would not be surprised if someone tries to debunk it just so that they aren't shamed by their inaction.

That all said, I have no idea if it is true or not. I could be one of the ones who just bought it hook line and sinker. If anyone has any hard evidence, I would be interested in hearing it!

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I picked this book up years ago while I was shopping in kmart. I started reading it, and literally couldn't put it down. I stood in kmart and read it cover to cover. I personally think that it came off as a true story. There were a lot of details that would have been difficult (not impossible) to make up. As a child who grew up in an abusive house, I could almost feel myself there with him. Insofar as siblings backing up his story, I would be surprised if any of them did. We have to realize that their survival depended on making mommy like them, and allowing their brother to take all the abuse helped them survive. They are going to be very damaged, and I don't think their loyalty would be to their brother. I haven't heard anything, other than here, that it may be a fraud. I tend to think it's not, but that is just how I felt reading it.

The other thing is that NO one involved in this story, teachers or siblings, really have anything to gain by this story being true, but they all do if it's not. Can you imagine the shame one would feel if you had been this child's teacher and had missed all the signs and not done anthing to save him? I would not be surprised if someone tries to debunk it just so that they aren't shamed by their inaction.

That all said, I have no idea if it is true or not. I could be one of the ones who just bought it hook line and sinker. If anyone has any hard evidence, I would be interested in hearing it!

That is pretty much how I see it too. It is in most everyones self interest, realized or not, to have it not be true.

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That is pretty much how I see it too. It is in most everyones self interest, realized or not, to have it not be true.

Except the guy who is making his living telling the story. He has a vested interest in it been seen as true.

Call me a cynic because while I know terrible thing like abuse happen.. Terrible things also happen in the name of greed. And I am not sure we can truly know which it might be with the current information.

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Except the guy who is making his living telling the story. He has a vested interest in it been seen as true.

Call me a cynic because while I know terrible thing like abuse happen.. Terrible things also happen in the name of greed. And I am not sure we can truly know which it might be with the current information.

Just so I understand better did you read the book?

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Just so I understand better did you read the book?

Nope... I read the linked article.

There does seem to be some serious doubts the accuracy of the claims made in the books otherwise such an article wouldn't really be needed.

Abuse is a highly emotionally charged issue. Just as much as people would like to think it never happens and try to deny it, it does happen. But it is also that emotional charge that makes people like to deny that anyone would ever lie about being abused, but that also can happen.

As to which of the two is the case here... I simply don't know. It seems to have potential to go either way.

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If one brother says it did and one says it didnt then it probably happened and the second brother has blacked it out.

It is possible. I actually wished this poll had a "not enough evidence option".

However, I have an aunt that claimed for several years my grandmother (her mother) constantly sexually abused her. Her three siblings denied any of it. You could argue my mother, my uncle, and other aunt blocked it all out, but, well, I had trouble believing any of it. After so long, aunt finally admitted she had made it all up. Ironically, she was even going for her own book deal with the story.

If I had to pick one, I would say its fiction... because there is no supporting evidence for it.

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On the charge that the siblings and teachers have an interest in debunking the story, there's not a concerted effort to do so by any of them. Instead, a couple of columnists saw enough discrepancies in the writing to cause them to doubt. One sibling doesn't by hardly any of it, and the other says there was abuse, but that it was not targeted only on David, nor was it as severe as he said.

A lot of people have said they hope it is not true. A part of me hopes it was. Peltzer has encouraged so many...I'd hate to think that at his core, he's mostly an opportunist.

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It is possible. I actually wished this poll had a "not enough evidence option". ... If I had to pick one, I would say its fiction... because there is no supporting evidence for it.

Except that it goes without saying that there is not enough evidence. Otherwise, know need for a poll. We'd know the truth. I intentionally forced readers to either not vote, or to offer their opinion. Out of openness, I'll say that I picked "fiction." Will I feel like a heel if the story proves true? Absolutely! I almost hope it is, for the sake of those who believe the story and have been encouraged by it. BUT, if I were on a jury, there would not be enough her to convict the mother...not close.

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I can't think of any worse thing than this story being true, EXCEPT, this story being true and people not believing it.

Recently I found on-line a posting from my sister (who I haven't spoken to in at least 15 years) about the abuse she suffered at my mother's hand. I was at my family hx center with friends, and broke down at the computer and sobbed. I printed it off, and asked my boyfriend to drive directly to the family hx center so he could read it. I took it to my counselor and had her read it. I'm still not sure why it meant so much to me, because no one has questioned if I am telling the truth about my past abuse, but seeing it in writing from my sister, echoing EXACTLY the things I had been saying for years was very liberating.

If we come down to not really knowing if it's true or not, I think we owe this man the benefit of the doubt. (not that our opinion on a website REALLY matters)

After adding my opinion to this thread I did a little research, and found that his grandmother and a brother are the two who are saying that his story is made up. I don't think the grandmother KNOWS for sure one way or another. I know that my mother was VERY focused on hiding her abuse, and I hid it for her. This seems to be the way it happened in the child called it too. I think it was very possibly happening right under a lot of people's noses. They SHOULD have picked up on the signs, but for whatever reason they didn't. Both the brother and the grandmother have a vested interest in this story being discredited. We need to keep in mind that another brother BACKS UP this story, and even admits participating in some of the abuse.

Again, let me say, it has been years since I read the book, and I have no idea if it is true or not. These are just my opinions!

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Oddly I never thought of the story as one to convict the mother. It is about his experiences not his mothers or his siblings either.

No doubt he would have seen it differently than the siblings. We all color things by our own personalities.

I think to some experiences in my childhood that shaped some of my thinking. The might not seem even worth remember to some or even most but they were important to me.

Now in abuse it is true that he either was or wasn't. Still another child who did not have that happen to them might not have even paid attention. It would have just been the way it was. No doubt they would have avoided any conflicts so that they would not be involved or hurt.

What were the contradictions? Do you remember?

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David's story is that he suffered all the abuse, and that the incidences were extremely cruel. The brother who agrees there was abuse says he was abused too, and that David was not isolated or targeted as much as he said. The other brother says it did not happen. Also, David fails to remember any physical descriptions of his mother than could identify her, and, of course, the story cannot be checked, because of the missing details.

Of course part of the reason doubts are raised is because David has done an excellent job of marketing his story, and promoting his heroism. If it's true, then isn't justice sweet? If not, how horrific.

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This is the only thing I can find that claims to outline 'contradictions' in the book... but to me, things like editing don't count as a contradition... This is a book review, the link is below.

"Alarm bells started to ring when I began to read this book, knowing in advance that what the story covers is disturbing and details the life between the ages of 4 and 12 of Dave Pelzer. I had vague ideas about the outline of the story and a little knowledge of what to expect, although the alarm bells for me began right at the beginning of the book when he acknowledges that the book is heavily edited by Marsha Donohoe, an editor by profession, in an attempt to make the story seem as if it were told by a child. Surely a story of what purports to be "one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in the history of California" should have stood its' ground without this treatment, and I suspected that rather than wanting to make the book more appealing, what the editor was in fact trying to achieve and succeeded in was selling a shocking story big time. Somehow a story of this magnitude doesn't have the same impact when written by an unknown adult.

The book was first published in the UK by Orion Media in the year 2000, and has subsequently been published in 33 different languages. The book has made money. It's a best seller, although the alarm bells that started to ring when I began my journey through the book, continued to such an extent that I am drawn towards writing what I think of a bestseller nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Writing style and character development.

From the initial pages of the book, the writing style of this author or in fact the woman that was claimed to have edited it (and who incidentally was romantically involved with Dave Pelzer at the time), seemed at best amateur, although as stated, it was supposed to be written as if being the thoughts of the child. What began to worry me within the pages of the book was that whilst the story was about a middle class family in California in the 1970's, with five sons, there was little mention of Dave's father or his brothers. This struck me as bizarre since I grew up in a family of similar size, and although had issues with my mother, would still recall interactions between myself and my sisters in memories, whilst Dave did not. It was almost as if they were shadows on the wall, rather than participants in his childhood, and the picture that the author was painting was almost like an oil painting of scenery with no background.

For what it's worth, the story begins on an optimistic note that actually acts as a safety barrier for the chapters that follow, knowing all the way through the book that there will be a conclusion that is at least happier than the road that takes you through this strange surreal explanation of a childhood that has gained such notoriety worldwide. The scenario set in the second chapter recalls how Dave saw his family life in the 1960's, and the happiness that filled their home. His father, Stephen, was a fire fighter on shift work, and the stability of family life something that even an abused child can look back on and remember as good times. This rings alarm bells as well, because had a child suffered the amount of abuse described in the chapters that followed, I doubt that their memory would go back as far as the ages that it is supposed to. Perhaps this description of their lives is the best that the writer could muster, and certainly, I would have difficulties myself in trying to describe my home life at the tender age of 4 or 5 with any accuracy. It doesn't ring true and seems almost like Dave is purposely remembering selectively the things that he choses to. The problem with selective memory is that it really does not make your written work believable.

In the chapters that follow, the reader is expected to believe that this perfect "role model" mother turned into a monster that chose to abuse one of her sons and how the story fails to convince is in that it tells one story from one angle, forgetting all other perspectives, puts aside logical thinking and reason, and expects the reader to accept without question that what is being said is true. The torture that the child is put through in the book makes very little sense to me. Yes, of course, a mother can favour one child over the others, and this often happens, though can a mother also single out one child to abuse, and be a loving mother to her other children and to the outside world ? Personally, I have my doubts. There are many instances within the book that are shocking, so shocking that several times, I had to distance myself from the story in order to gain perspective, because what I was reading made no sense. There are contradictions galore throughout the story, such as the descriptions of his mothers' obsession to starve the child, weighed against his own description in a miserable and almost "sorry for myself" description of his lunch pail always having the same contents.

So many discrepancies made me wonder about the truth that lies behind the words. Yes, the child was taken into care at the age of 12, but we are lead to believe that for the last 4 to 5 years of the lads' life with his family that he was starved, tortured in despicable ways, unfed, dressed in the same clothes over a period of 12 months at a time, and that no one noticed. The descriptions are graphically disturbing, although without the background on the canvas, or a picture of family life, friends, siblings, or even a hint at emotion towards his father, the words were hollow, and only shocked me from lack of logic and explanation. It struck me that the whole book is like a testament of guilt thrown towards a woman that for some reason failed, although everyone is to assume her guilt without any proof or hard evidence that the story is true.

The book made me research, made me ask questions to fill in the gaps that were so glaringly obvious and it seems that the story was only published after the death of his mother in January 1992, by which time his father had also died. I also questioned why members of the family had never contested the contents of the book, although here found that many had dismissed it as folly and that his own Grandmother (accused of abuse of his mother and one of the weak arguments for why Dave's mother became abusive in the first place) stated that Dave's book belongs in the fiction section.

It is weak throughout all of its' chapters. No teachers noticed. No neighbours complained and what really did make me angry about the writing of this book was that it insults the reader's intelligence and integrity by its' lack of substantiation. Sure, the child was abused. Of that there is no doubt, as he was taken into care at the age of 12, though if the authorities believed Dave's version of events, would they have left four other young children in the care of such an "unfit" mother ? I think not.

Taken a step further, none of his brothers comment upon the contents of the book, and although there is a small chapter where quotes were made by Dave's teacher at the end of this book, the teacher stays "neutral" and says that the story is Dave's to tell, and that back in those days very little was known about the existence of child abuse. This was a retrospective comment made on an event that was scaled as enormously important, though the response given by the teacher who had been contacted by the editor of this book was scathingly careful to say the least.

I would suspect that the brothers of Dave are now married and moved on, and even their names have been changed within the characterizations in the book in an attempt to protect them from scandal. I honestly feel that the publishers knew that no-one would contest the story written by Dave, and would certainly have felt easier in their sleep in the wake of a book written by Dave's brother, Richard, who seemingly jumped on the same bandwagon in an attempt to find a moments' glory in the shadow of his famous brother. His book entitled "A Brother's Journey" relates to the treatment he received at the hands of his mother, when Dave had been taken into care, and he would certainly not contest the contents of this book on the grounds that it may put his own efforts in jeopardy.

All the way through this disturbing read, there are constant contradictions, and I believe "selected" memories, put together in an attempt to shock, though to what purpose ? In some respects, if Dave were as badly abused as he says he was, perhaps the book was his way of coming to terms with what had happened, though personally I doubt it. The book has made the man rich, and the two books that followed and made the trilogy of "A Boy Called It", "The Lost Boy", and "A Man Named Dave" seem too commercially contrived as a money spinner to have served any useful purpose in the way that child abuse is dealt with, and I can only believe that the bitterness and pain shown as incomplete pictures within this book, owe their incompleteness to the perceptions of a mind tortured by memories that somehow still do not make sufficient sense to complete the picture, even to him.

A week after having read this book, the disturbing images that it produced in my mind are still there, but what remains within my thoughts through the writing Dave Pelzer is how cleverly people can manipulate circumstance for gain."

Read more: Book reviews: A Child Called it, by David Peltzer

I still think it's true...

Another thing, I would not recommend that any one who hasn't read this book read it. It WILL haunt you. The imagery is VERY disturbing. I can still see visions of him suffering in the 'gas chamber'. Ugh.

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I am not impressed with that review. For one thing he doubts its can be true that an abuser will pick one child to abuse and not abuse the rest. He obviously does not know much about abuse which throws his other criticisms into doubt.

I remember seeing the guy once on tv. He has been described as narcissistic and a huge self promoter. That is not what I saw. He was a nerdy looking guy who seemed very uncomfortable on the set. He did seem very determined to make people aware.

I am with you sister-in-faith. I think its true.

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Aw shucks! ;) I PROMISE you that the bf thing is legit... I've even had a recommend interview since we all that that discussion, and I talked to the bishop and the SP about what people on this forum thought about my situation. I even asked if I was 'tarnishing' the church by being a member in my situation. Ugh. Anyway, skip to the end of the story and I have a shiny new temple recommend in my purse! It's alllllll good. :)

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Aw shucks! ;) I PROMISE you that the bf thing is legit... I've even had a recommend interview since we all that that discussion, and I talked to the bishop and the SP about what people on this forum thought about my situation. I even asked if I was 'tarnishing' the church by being a member in my situation. Ugh. Anyway, skip to the end of the story and I have a shiny new temple recommend in my purse! It's alllllll good. :)

That is super cool! Its so wonderful that you got to go to the temple. I have been reading your posts on your experience and its so easy to see how great you feel. :)

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