I remember the day I read that Jaycee had been discovered – I was 18 years old : the age equal to the number of years she had been held captive. As such I don’t remember Jaycee’s actual kidnapping (I was something like 6 months – and just under a year younger than Jaycee’s sister). I also don’t really know how much coverage Jaycee’s disappearance was given over here in the UK. But still I remember reading that Jaycee had been discovered and thinking how incredible it was.
A Stolen Life is probably the most difficult book I’ve read this year. It’s a fairly quick read but it’s not ease. Jaycee is very open about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her captors and that makes for some very difficult reading.
The book isn’t written in them most easy to follow manner but Jaycee starts off by explaining to the reader that this will be the case and it’s her story and she should be allowed to tell it as she wishes. And once I had got in to the pattern of Jaycee’s voice I found it much easier. Also time in the book is a very strange thing. Because Jaycee had no real way of knowing how many days passed (other than occasions such as Christmas where she found it was that date from the television). An example of which is during her time in captivity Philip Garrido was sent back to prison. Jaycee in the book tells us that this lasted a month but in reality it was nearer to 5. I didn’t expect this to be written perfectly after all Jaycee’s education effectively stopped aged 11 – although she was able to still read while being held and taught her daughter’s using work sheets she downloaded from the internet.
Jaycee’s story in the book seems to be divided in to the three sort of parts (although this distinction is never made in the book).
The first is the actual kidnapping and the first 6 or 7 years of her time in captivity. This is probably the largest part of the book and it is during this time that Jaycee is most explicit about the abuse she suffered – the ‘runs’ she went on and the repeated raping by Philip Garrido. It is during this part that Jaycee becomes pregnant and gives birth to her first child (referred to as A).
The second part of the book starts around November 1997 when Jaycee gives birth to her second baby (referred to as G). During this time, we don’t read further mentions of any sexual abuse by Philip to Jaycee but she is still very much the victim of psychology abuse. It is during this time that Jaycee becomes ‘sister’ to her two young daughters, starts to work for Philip as part of his business and is even occasionally permitted to leave to go thift store shopping with Nancy Garrido. It is during this section that the real deterioration of Philip Garrido’s mental health condition really starts to show with the talk of the angels. I’ll admit I did find that rather confusing to follow. This section of the book also shows how Jaycee was developing as later in this section we see how frustrated Jaycee feels with her life, with her lazy ‘dad’, her lack of freedom and her inability to drive. Very much ‘normal’ teenage angst but experience in her twenties. Of course nothing in the life Jaycee led was actually normal.
The third part is the discovery of Jaycee and the therapy she was received since then. The reunions between Jaycee and her family had me in tears and also Jaycee being able to reclaim her name after so many years of not even being able to write it.
Throughout the book Jaycee is very careful to protect her young daughter (the only photos of the girls are of them as very young children) so that they can have as normal a life as possible now they are out of captivity. I very much feel for Jaycee because from reading the book she still feels captive in many ways because she wants to protect her girls from being ‘Jaycee’s daughters’ in the public eye she feels she cannot be free to do normal things with them – like help out at school events.
Jaycee also gives a large amount of text to the pets that she had during the time of her captivity.
Jaycee mentions a lot in this book that she is a coward but she is anything but. She is a strong young woman and I hope her strength and confidence continues to grow.
Perhaps this book would have been interesting if it had also included some news articles from the time. Just to balance out the emotion of Jaycee’s writing but then this is her personal account so maybe that wouldn’t have fit and that can always come later.
From this book I will take away an appreciation of what I have. The fact that I can walk outside my house and keep walking wherever I wish. I can read what I wish and watch what I wish. I have a comfortable bed on which to sleep. I don’t have to rely on someone to bring me food and drink. I also thank Jaycee for giving me an appreciation of having an identity and being able to live as myself because that is one of the many things she had stolen from her.
And Baby Makes Six by Pamela Dalton
