Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery [Hardcover]

Patricia Weaver Francisco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 1999

In this profoundly honest memoir, Patricia Weaver Francisco tells the story of her 15-year journey to uncover and understand the effects of violent rape. She describes her fear during and after the rape in a visceral, unforgettable style, and details the transformation of trauma into strength. This transformation begins by learning to talk about rape, a subject that society would still rather keep locked in darkness. Francisco eloquently illustrates that there are tragic consequences for the survivor and for the culture when we neglect this human story. A compelling and important book, destined to become a classic, Telling can help bring hope and healing to the women who need it, and to their loved ones trying to help them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Telling requires a kind of courage that I normally lack. This book is an exertion, a promise I'm keeping, and it's slow going." Readers may find the going slow, too, because Francisco (Cold Feet) writes in an almost halting, episodic style as she breaks a long silence to write about rape and its long, perhaps endless, aftermath. Her memoir is deliberately self-conscious in its revelations of what happened, in its exploration of emotion and in its construction of meaning. And it works, because Francisco's method is appropriate to the larger argument that animates the memoir: that, while telling is excruciating, silence is poison. In 1981, while her husband, Tim, was in Vermont, an intruder broke into her Minneapolis home and raped her. Francisco underwent counseling and received a great deal of love and support from both Tim and her friends. However, despite her best efforts to carry on with her life, she found that she was unable to recover completely from the trauma. She now attributes the difficult labor she endured four years later while giving birth to her son to a suppressed physiological memory of the rape. She also feels that her ordeal placed a stress on her and Tim that contributed to their subsequent divorce. In order to complete her recovery, Francisco needed publicly to acknowledge what happened to her. So she attended several Minnesota rape trials and participated in the "Silent Witness" project, which publicizes cases of women killed in domestic violence. In this fierce book, she strikes a difficult balance between the subjectivity of memoir and an eloquent argument that society must look sexual assault in the face before it can be stopped. Agent, Ellen Levine.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"I could not put this book downPatricia Francisco's writing is electrifying. This is an important book. I am amazed we are only now reading it. We've all wanted it for a long time. Thank You, Patricia Francisco. My world is now more awake." -- Natalie Goldberg

"I have read many accounts of sexual assualt, but I can't remember any as powerful as Patricia Francisco's. This book is remarkable for its intelligence and control of detail, and for the author's refusal to beg for automatic sympathy." -- Rosellen Brown

"Patricia Francisco has done that rare thing; write with honesty about the act of evil and about her slow trudge to health in its aftermath. Her story is important for every woman to hear and every man to know. This book is impressive and very moving." -- Louise Erdrich

"Patricia Francisco has written a beautiful book about the pain of rape. What a feat, to have great measures of wisdom and generosity and love in a book that is also about fear and loss. Telling is an important memoir by an eloquent writer." -- Jane Hamilton

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (January 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192917
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192914
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,269,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Well-Written, Struck Me Right To The Core, April 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery (Hardcover)

As difficult as it was for me to read this book, due to it's similarity to my experience, I found it to be so extremely compelling--I couldn't put it down! Ms.Francisco has an incredible command of the English language and was able to communicate in painful detail, her inner-most thoughts and feelings, before, during and after the rape. As I read this book, I went through and highlighted many many many passages that I felt pertained directly to me.....so that my husband could read it and gain better insight into what I was and still am thinking. This is a wonderful, amazing book, that both rape survivors and non-rape survivors can benefit from.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INTENSE AND INTELLIGENT AND BEAUTIFUL, February 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery (Hardcover)

This is an intelligent, poetic account of rape and its aftermath by an intensely thoughtful and observant woman, who happens also to be a writer. If you are a survivor, this book will help put into words, some of the intricate and complex feelings of fear, terror, ineffable shame etc. that many, many survivors experience alone. It is also a VERY GOOD book and a beautifully written one, about a woman's quest to make sense of her experience and to regain a foothold in a new world - one of supreme vulnerability and insecurity - one where a woman can be raped in her own home, in her own bed, by an intruder who breaks in and robs her of a world she had been taught to believe in.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TELLING is an intimate, inspiring book about rape recovery., January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery (Hardcover)

I must admit, I was a little scared to read this book. I know Patricia Francisco, and I wasn't sure whether I could handle the pain and sadness of reading this account of her rape and recovery. But the more I read, the more my heart continued to open -- for while I shed a few tears, reading about her son, for instance, and about the end of her marriage, there was also a generous light and a sense of sweetness and hope that consistently came through in her words. Do not be afraid to read this. This book makes you feel good.