27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Horrifyng, Moving and Ultimately Satisfying, October 16, 2009
This review is from: The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America (Hardcover)
Just when you think there's no more way to find cruelty in the world, this book comes along. John Lahutsky's story begins when he was Vanya, a child abandoned by an immature mother, at the mercy of Russian orphanages. These orphanages come across as bizarre, like an experiment to see what happens to children deprived of care, let alone human interaction and attention. Sadly, we already know. The children lose their ability to function, get diagnosed as uneducable, and descend into a vicious spiral. They move from the indifference of the Baby House to the horror of the "internat," the insane asylums that resemble concentration camps.
To be fair, the institutional staff are also victims: underpaid and helpless. Raised under Stalin, the director of Vanya's Baby House has never learned to make decisions or take charge.
Vanya demonstrates the psychological construct of resilience. He reaches out to other children and to visiting adults. Reaching out to Sarah Philips turns his life around. Sarah enlistes her husband Alan, a journalist with media access. Sarah and a Russian volunteer, Vika, managed to rescue Vanya from the cycle. One adoption falls through. (This is not a spoiler. When you read the book jacket, you know who finally adopts Vanya.)
After a series of hair-raising adventures, Vanya becomes part of a grass roots foster parent organization. Two Russian women offer to adopt Vanya, but a miracle happens. An American single woman, Paula, adopts Vanya. Paula, a school psychologist with a Russian heritage, turns out to be the perfect "mom." In a moving chapter at the end of the book, John shares his story about living in the Pennsylvania countryside. His resilience and self-protective personality come across even when he talks of choosing a Boy Scout troop.
Author Alan Philips gives co-author credit to Vanya, now known as John. To their credit, the book is written with a simplicity that sets off Vanya's early life. Although I can't imagine anyone reading this book without being moved, the authors maintain an upbeat, unsentimental, matter of fact style. Hannah Arendt's phrase, "the banality of evil," comes to mind as we read about everyone who harms these children, from the "commissions" who condemn them with pseudo-scientific diagnoses to the hospital orderly who insults Vanya's mother.
Several people have started foundations and movements to help, including Sarah Philips. Hopefully publication of this book will trigger some action. We need an organization like Amnesty International to rescue those who languish in prison without ever having been condemned.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Resilience, inspiration and belief..., December 6, 2009
This review is from: The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America (Hardcover)
No need to go out shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, The Boy from Baby House 10 is this year's Christmas gift for family and friends!
This little boy's life is chronicled in a way that should only be told in fiction. John's story, unfortunately, is not fiction but the honest truth of a life discarded. The heroes in John's story include John and the many good people who touched his life and with a sense of justice, became his guardian angels as well. Alan Philps and John Lahutsky have partnered up to tell a story and raise the consciousness of all who take the time to read it.
I was inspired by John's resilience to extremely harsh conditions. For this very young child to have faced `an internat' where older adults were housed because there was no other place for them in society, and call out for adults who were going about their business trying to help, as volunteers in any way they could to relieve the boredom of an asylum. How could it be the volunteer role to save children? Isn't that the role of caretaker?
For all of us who have too much and want for nothing, John reminds that perhaps if we ever need to test our resolve and resilience, we might find happiness in knowing that this one little boy made it and with a little help from our guardian angels, we can too.
Alan and John, thank you for sharing this very inspirational story. Sarah, you are what many women aspire to become - someone who can take care of their family and support others as well by giving of yourself so compassionately. And, finally, to Paula Lahutsky, mother of John Lahutsky, you certainly did find the most loving boy to mother!! I can't wait for the sequel!!!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Human Spirit Triumphs, December 1, 2009
This review is from: The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America (Hardcover)
The story of Vanya/John from unspeakably appalling Russian "ophanages" to successful and happy life in America is totally absorbing. It reads like a thriller: I was so anxious to turn to the next page to see what happens next.
Whilst the story is very sad and at times I wanted to grab some of these cruel and unthinking people and shake them, it never wallows in "misery lit" but tells the story in a way that also celebrates the ordinary people who achieve so much in their quest to save Vanya and improve the lives of other neglected children. It is their story too and you do feel uplifted by this as well as disgusted with the state system in Russia.
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