I recently read an article about the family feud behind Julie Myerson's new book, "The Lost Child" in The Times. In the book industry, particularly in new memoirs and biographies, the revelation of truth is a hot issue. Defamation? Public humiliation? Relationships may be severed, families split in half.
What troubles me is that in the literary world, the ideals of "family" may seem to justify keeping the silence on such a major domestic trauma that is growing. This is the silence that permits the same mistakes to overcome thousands of families. When revealing the raw truth could potentially raise awareness, and help prevent drug abuse and/or domestic violence ... any hesitation appears cruel.
Whether it's the parents or the children telling the story, the silence has to be broken, especially when it could have such a positive/growing affect on the rest of the world. The price of keeping secrets and watching the same tragedy occur again and again is much higher than we could ever imagine.
Read The Times article online
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I agree. Honesty is so important. How will we ever understand anything about life, human life, if no one ever tells the truth? Secrecy keeps us isolated, and only honesty can set us free.
ReplyDeleteIt has taken me a couple of years to write my memories, first it started out as simple journal, which I strongly encourage everyone to do as it really does help to write things down. Then I began just starting from the beginning to tell it all. I felt like if I told the truth about them all, they would stop telling lies about me. 200 pages into the book I realized that I need to get as far away as I could to break the family ties & seriously consider publishing. My price was FREEDOM "Escape from Obscurity" is my book title.. http://piccolosuzetta.blogspot.com/
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