Customer Reviews

The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival

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During the military junta from 1976 to 1982, the Argentine military unleashed a reign of terror onto the Argentine community. In these years over 30,000 people, mostly between the ages of 18 and 35, just disappeared off of the streets. Most of them were never heard from again. A few were released. Yet with their "freedom" from the secret detention camps, came the reality of dealing with the atrocities of their imprisonment. The torture, isolation, beating, rape, electrocution they suffered in these secret prisons, where they were often kept blindfolded and bound for months, lives with them forever. The author of The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival, Alicia Partnoy, is one of the few disappeared during this time to have been released. This book documents the more than three months she spent in a secret detention camp known as "the little school." It tells of her and other prisoners' lives inside this nightmare. It describes the torture and humiliation they endured. It is a heartbreaking but inspiring story of hope and faith can triumph even under the most horrific conditions. It is impossible not to be moved to tears at some point during this book.

This is one of those books that takes guts to have on your shelf. But it is so very worth reading, and probably re-reading throughout your life. I had the pleasure of listening to Alicia Partnoy speak about this book and her voice is so soft and delicate compared to the strength of her words. After reading the book, I characterized her as a woman of such power (she had to have so much courage to withstand the torture); and in person she reminded me that she is simply human, having endured a terrible time of history both personally and for Argentina in general, and she carries that history with her throughout her life. While there are various good books about "disappearance" and exile with relation to Latin America, this one tops the lists.

Imagine being kidnapped and being taken to a concentration camp, blindfolded, tied up and not knowing when you will ever see your family and friends again. What would you do if someone put a gun in your mouth? Alicia Partnoy proved to be a brave woman among others.

What you must know is that this is a true story. It is like if you are reading something made up, but it is sadly true. It is greatly detailed and it even has a sense of humor at points. It is really amazing to see how Alicia talks about her experience and the other "disappeared" s' experiences.

She was kidnapped. Did not know the whereabouts of her daughter. Her husband was kidnapped also, but they were not able to see each other. Even though she was away from them, she managed to think of them as little as possible, because she thought it would weaken her in trying to survive for them.

She was always helping others in one way or another. Since they did not know when they were going to die, Alicia showed her compassion in their last hours. She was very generous when everything else was so ruthless.

She shares part of her hideous life lived in the Little School, because even though she tells you what happened to her and her friends, she keeps the darkest moments to herself. It is personal, a very personal story. You should be thankful that she even wrote this book because she is informing you about what really happened at those times and how the guards treated them inside the Little School.

This book demonstrates the true value of life. Some people overlook small things in life, but these small things grow to be very significant to Alicia when she was a prisoner. It shows the importance of your five senses, the ability to smell, to touch, to hear, to taste and to talk. She was able to see through her nose given that she was blindfolded and was able to create small balls out of bread. Talk about using your imagination at miserable times. This is just one of the things she learned to do when held captive. Read this book to find out how she did this and what else she discovered inside the concentration camp.

Slippers, bread and a toothbrush: these everyday items are simple enough to most people in the United States, and other parts of the world, to take advantage of or even ignore. In Argentina in the mid to late 70's, however, these common items were enough to keep one young woman sane enough to escape captivity. In The Little School, Alicia Partnoy tells the very real stories of her capture and imprisonment in a government- run concentration camp. Partnoy spins tales of survival in a climate of oppression and death. These amazingly well told stories draw the reader into a terrifying world in which young men and women create and keep intensely strong bonds of camaraderie and friendship even as they have their human dignity is denied to them.
The Little School is a book of short stories devoted to telling the true history of the 30,000 "disappeared" Argentines at the hands of the government from 1976 to 1979. Thousands of Argentines were taken captive in retaliation for civil disobedience to the government. In this book, Alicia Partnoy takes on the challenge of refuting the official statements made by the government denying the disappearances and making the truth achingly real. As a way of dealing with the reality of her ordeal, Partnoy uses her gift of storytelling to draw in the reader and make her feel what the prisoners felt.
One of the key techniques that Partnoy employs in the telling of the stories in The Little School is continually changing the perspective from which the story is told. The story of Partnoy's own capture is told from a third person point of view as if a narrator is watching it take place. This is a very powerful tool because it shows that Partnoy uses her own encounter and terror as a means of showing how many, if not all, of the other imprisonments took place. Partnoy expends a lot of energy, as evidenced by this technique, in telling the stories of other people as well as her own. While she does, indeed, spend a fair deal of time telling her own experiences, she also speaks from the perspective of her friend Graciela and her experience being in the school throughout her pregnancy. In doing this, Partnoy takes one of life's most pure experiences and shows the inhumanity of the Argentinean government as they keep, and even torture, a woman who is with child. The stories told from Graciela's perspective shine a light on the true dignity that the prisoners displayed throughout their ordeals.

While many people read books as a way of escaping into another world, Partnoy writes the stories in The Little School as a way to confront the very real ways in which she and others managed to band together in small acts of compassion toward each other and disobedience against their captors in order to mentally escape their confinement. Alicia Partnoy chose to, in writing The Little School, relive her experience in order to make the world understand what really happened to her and 30,000 others. In Partnoy's words, "Beware: in little schools the boundaries between story and history are so subtle that even I can hardly find them."
I highly recommend this book to all readers. It has historical significance as well as a deep human side. Alicia Partnoy chose to revisit the horror that she experienced in the hope that she could help people everywhere understand the circumstances surrounding her disappearance as well as those of so many more.

What would you say if one day while you were doing your chores like every day in your house, spending time with your family and then suddenly a man barges the door throgh wearing military uniforms and takes you away without an explation. What would you do? How would you react?
Well unfortunately this is what happened to Alicia Partnoy. On January 12, 1977 Alicia was taken away from her house while her husband was working. This sad event took place in Argentina during the time when people were struggling for a better life, striking on streets, demanding better wages. "The Little School" not only tells you the story of Alicia Portnoy, but the stories of people who experience the brutality, the night mares they had to go through while being kept in captivity by the military in a camp called "The Little School".
I would recommend this book because it gives the reader an idea about how life was in Argentina when govern by evil dictatorship. It will show you how life was while being kept in captivity by the military. For example, the prisoners were blindfolded and by being blindfolded they lost any memory of themselves leaving them hopeless, miserable, and humiliated without any energy left for the future. People would like reading this book because is not only interesting, but it opens your eyes and gives you an idea of how cruel the world can be if its run by the wrong people. Many families were ruined and many people died because they believe in a better world and wanted a better life for the future. "The Little School" is a book that tells us the stories of many people who suffered in the in the hands of thier leaders and teaches us that things like this are happening all around the world and just because we don't hear about it, it doesn't mean we cant do anything about it. You will like this book that you might read it several times because is an unbelievable story of survival.

This book stirred up and anger and passion in my in me that I cannot express in words. You have to read it to beleive it!

Alicia Partnoy paints a vivid picture of the horror and torture her, and the other inmates at `The Little School' were forced to endure. Her emancipated body and ragged clothing lead the guards to nickname her `death'. However, this nickname only reinforced her determination to survive, "Maybe that is why every day, when I wake up, I say to myself that I, Alicia Partnoy, am still alive". Saying this to herself everyday gave her hope and made living a little bit more bearable. One day she made 25 bread rolls to play with, which it yet another form of resistance, in this case resistance to boredom, and insanity. The appreciation of rain is another way she survived. To feel a drop of water of her face was a rare gift. It was so special that "to own a leak" as Partnoy exclaimed was a great opportunity as it reminded her of freedom and how that same drop of water could be used to nurture flowers outside the camp. She really demonstrates through this book what it means to be a survivor, and the horrible conditions The Little School forced these innocent people to endure in.

The Little School was definitely a tale of survival. Partnoy in a way illustrates this novel more than writes it because she describes things with so much detail and really paints a picture in your head. Her stories are fascinating in both heart breaking and inspiring. The other survivors who went through this experience with her are described as very special people who she cared deeply about, even at times more than herself. The book is only about 130 pages with each chapter being extremely short so it only takes a couple hours to actually read the entire book and its an easy read at that. I enjoyed this book and think it should be considered as one of the better tales of survival amongst the many out there.

This was definitely an interesting and easy to read story. The Little School is Alicia Partnoy's account of what she experienced, through a blindfold, when she was forced into one of the many government concentration camps in Argentina during the Dirty War. She writes about her personal experience, thoughts and the stories of some of her fellow political dissidents. Overall it was a good read and shed to light an event I knew little to nothing about. It wasn't too intense so the average reader should be able to get through it without nightmares. It is clear that she undoubtedly left out the gory details. The book went into little detail about anybody's dark feelings, torture sessions and practically nothing about the sexual assault they must have endured. Maybe this was to save the reader, maybe she felt like it would have given the torturers some sick glorification, or maybe she just wanted us to get to know the prisoners as people not just torture victims. In any case, it was definitely a personal yet light hearted way to gain some understanding of an important event in history that can always repeat itself.

Alicia Portnoy's "The Little School" is an in-depth description of the lives of Argentinian prisoners. Portnoy combines the horrific truth of living in a prison camp with slight humor which made reading this book interesting and hard to put down. Portnoy describes her daily life as a prisoner. She gives vivid examples of her struggles, her pain and the little things she could be grateful for. Throughout the book, Portnoy demonstrates a woman's strength by continuing to remain as positive as she could possibly be. She looked forward to the few minutes she could talk to her prisonmates/ friends and shows that despite the horrible living conditions,the officers of the camp could not change who she is. Although the prisoners had barely any food and water, were blindfolded for weeks on end, they still remained true to themselves, their convictions and each other. Portnoy's strength and determination is inspiring and motivating. Reading this book allowed me to appreciate everything from soda to my personal freedom. I definately recommend this book.