The Kindness of Strangers - Katrina Kittle

A couple months ago, I agreed to review books for an award given out by Stanford called the Saroyan Prize. It is given out every two years to a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction. My deadline to submit my reviews is tomorrow, and The Kindness of Strangers was the last of my four books to read. So, I went out on my back deck to enjoy the nice weekend weather and hope that this was a good one...the writing grabbed me right away. Nothing spectacular, just straight-forward and immediately engaging. The book is told in the third-person, but the chapters rotate from the perspective of a widow of two (Sarah), her oldest high-school aged son (Nate), and the 11-year old son of a friend (Jordan). As Sarah struggles to keep her own two sons in order, a devastating secret is revealed about Jordan's family. While the "secret" is not discussed in the book-flap summary, it comes to light fairly quickly - so I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything by saying that the horrible truth is that Jordan has been sexually abused for years by his parents. His father flees from the police, and his mother, Sarah's best friend, is arrested but denies any knowledge of the abuse. The subject matter is clearly disturbing, but I thought Kittle dealt with the varying perspectives of the abuse in a masterful way. She deals with the betrayal Sarah feels, Nate's anger, and Sarah's youngest son's inability to understand why his friend would "let" such a thing happen. And, of course, there is Jordan himself and his conflicting loyalties to his parents, his struggle to survive, and his painful journey to understanding what a "normal" world and parental love should look and feel like. Kittle addresses the cycle of abuse, the manipulation by predators, the mob mentality of a community whose children have been threatened - and in general, I felt, really managed to incorporate all sides of this very complex and devastating subject. The Kindness of Strangers is not easy reading, but for better or worse, I think it paints a very real picture of abuse - and is hopefully a step in the direction of better understanding and protecting all children.