13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'll think twice before throwing food out again, March 12, 2003
This book is truly an eye opener as to what it really means to be poor and hungry. I can't believe that someone with only two years of schooling could churn out such a masterpiece, the language and thought processes involved will leave you wondering with amazement. What suprises you is that in and amongst all the squalor, deprivation, fights and hunger she still admires the night sky, the birds, the stars, the beautiful weather. What a woman ! Most people in her position wouldn't have time to be thankful for these "free" beautiful things and that is what I found so touching. Her dedication to her children and indeed her neighbours will teach all us other mortals in the devleoped world what being humble really means. At times this woman cannot find a meal but when she has money and food she shares it with her friends and neighbours, wondering little if she will have a meal the next day. Her ability to keep going despite her adversities will shock you. Please read this book, you will aspire to be a better person afterwards.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting insight, January 4, 2001
This book is raw and angry, but a satisfying read nonetheless. Poverty, murder, fights and most of all hunger are the main themes in this book. But what keeps you interested is her wonderfull insights on life and her overwhelming love for her children. Toward the end it starts to lag, after all, it is a diary that was not meant for publication. The characters are scattered and it's a bit repetitive, but the important thing is she takes you into her world. That, in my mind, is the gift of a talented author
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Written word transforms dead end life, March 22, 2007
This review is from: Child Of The Dark: The Diary Of Carolina Maria De Jesus (50th Anniversary Edition) (Paperback)
The autobiographies of poor people from places far from the middle class worlds of rich countries never used to appear in book stores. It was indeed rare that such lives, however interesting, difficult, inspiring or depressing would ever show up on the shelves. But such is the modern world that nowadays we do get occasional chances to glimpse other lives, hear other voices. In "From the Land of Green Ghosts" we could read of the life of a member of the Padaung tribe in Burma; in "Notes from the Hyena's Belly", we read about a small town Ethiopian. Both these men were not poor in their own societies, but went through the traumas of war and revolution before escaping to the calmer West. The adventures of Tete-Michel Kpomassie, a Togolese villager who made it all the way to Greenland, provide another type of narrative. CHILD OF THE DARK, a book written by a Brazilian woman from the very bottom of society, is yet another kind of these rare narrations, and moreover, was one of the first to appear. Carolina Maria de Jesus, a black mother of three with a second grade education, abandoned by all the men in her life, raised her kids in one of the worst slums of Sao Paulo. She picked trash and paper to sell to junk dealers, cadged bones from a slaughterhouse to make soup, collected squashed tomatoes from behind a cannery, and scavenged thrown away food items from the garbage of richer streets. Writing a diary every day helped her to persevere through years of hardship, to escape for a few moments, her hunger, misery, and constant worry. Through a chance encounter with a journalist, her diary was eventually published and she became a celebrity in Brazil back in the early 1960s. She left her hand-to-mouth existence and moved out of the favela forever. Her book is the only one of its kind from that time. [She had a hard time coping with her new life, though, and died in poverty in 1977.]
It's not all sweetness and light, not all a goody goody, morally uplifting Cinderella tale. She sometimes beat her kids, she slept with various suitors, abused "substances", and reported to the police on her neighbors (not that they didn't deserve it). She also has bad things to say about Portuguese, gypsies, and Jews. But OK, most all this is a story of human survival. De Jesus eked out a meagre living amidst squalor and constant quarreling, drunkenness and the sexual antics of the poorest members of Brazilian society, yet she bore up, kept writing, and made many observations about the society that produced such misery, the politicians who came around to ask for votes and then never appeared again. Brazil has no doubt changed in the last half century, but I believe this most human life story is still extremely relevant, both for Brazil and the rest of the world. How many Carolinas is it going to take ?
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