-You must always, always tell the truth, no matter the consequences, for you must model yourself on Jehovah, and Jehovah does not lie. This is the most crucial rule of all,+ Joy Castro is told as a young girl in a Jehovah+s Witness family. Joy is 12 years old when her divorced mother marries a brother in the church. He is highly respected in the community, having displayed the ultimate sign of spiritual devotion: he served at Bethel, the Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn. At home, however, he is a despicable brute. For the two years her mother is married to him, Joy does not grow at all; in fact, she loses 16 pounds, an eloquent testimony to the physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse she suffers at his hands. Her battered mother does nothing to protect her, nor does her church. She is sustained by a consuming fascination for horses and books and her protective love for her younger brother. Their daring escape from this unspeakable cruelty, to discover a nurturing home with their father, is the key to their survival and salvation.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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Jehovah's Witnesses have something they call "the truth book," Castro says, which lays the groundwork proving theirs is the one, true religion. As a precocious preteen, and though wholly indoctrinated by her fundamentalist family, Castro began asking simple questions regarding the book's claims. Her mother's response, her father's ambivalence, the unapproachable church elders, and ultimately her stepfather's vicious enforcement of the book's truth constitute the framework for her startling memoir of not just an abhorrently dysfunctional family but also a misfiring religious organization. Castro portrays Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion that recognizes all people as equals yet disenfranchises a member for smoking, and as a passionately proselytizing organization that can turn a blind eye to grossly abusive parenting. Her story is, more than merely engaging, downright embracing. The unfolding fates of Castro and her brother as they endure abuse at the hands of those entrusted with their care, even though we know they emerged whole and sane, prove utterly gripping. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Knowing Joy Castro,
By
This review is from: The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses (Hardcover)
I thought I knew Joy Castro pretty well. We've worked together for seven or eight years; I've read her frequent submissions to Wabash Magazine, online journals, magazines and newspapers; and I've even sat in on her classes a few times. She is meticulously polite, soft-spoken, and always eager to collaborate on a range of projects to improve education and provide access to it.
I thought I knew her pretty well. Then I read The Truth Book. Subtitled "Escaping a childhood of abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses," Joy's memoir tells the story of a brutal stepfather who routinely beat her and her brother, Tony. They were denied television, books, and given only tiny portions of food to eat. They were told how to walk, talk, and behave. They wore only second and third-hand clothes. All in the name of Jehovah. After reading an advance copy of the book, I kept asking myself, "Why isn't she angry? Why didn't she end up on the streets? How could she be such a caring, loving mother to her son when she was denied such basic instincts from her own mother? Why doesn't she show the scars of her abuse?" But the book isn't just about the abuse Joy and her brother suffered. In many ways, it's a book about hope and will and sacrifice. It's the true story of a young woman with an imagination off the charts, whose love of books and the written word propelled her to a graduate degree in English and a tenured position in the English department at Wabash College; whose unfailing love of her son has no boundaries. Joy was denied even a scrap of respect as a child. Today she is respectful of others, and quintessentially respected by her colleagues, students, and anyone who has read her work. If you know Joy Castro you never could imagine the abuses of her childhood and struggles as a young mother. You only know her as she is today, as I do, which makes me understand that The Truth Book is really, ultimately a story of redemption. But those are my words. Joy is the only one who knows the true meaning of the book: "You try to be decent and treat people gently, knowing that they, too, have their scars and madnesses that, like yours, do not show." Read the book. It'll make you want to live your life differently. And maybe, just maybe, you'll treat people - even those you think you know well - with the gentle kindness that is respectful of any hidden scars.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Truthful Than We'd Like To Think,
By Joy E. Laine (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses (Hardcover)
I grew up as a JW as did Ms. Castro, and I happen to share her first name, as my mother thought it a good idea to name me after "one of the fruitages of the spirit" mentioned in the bible. I read Ms. Castro's book in three days, which is unheard of for me. Her writing is very real, giving life and dimension to the all-too-truthful events and people she describes. I was surprised that I did not cry while reading her story, as she does not write in a manner asking for sympathy or pity - she is merely relating events as they occurred in a very eloquent and readable fashion. I grew to like Joy and to view her as a friend, as even though we have never met, we have shared many experiences. I physically cringed at the all-too-familiar tales of beatings at the kingdom hall for the sin of fidgeting in your chair at ages where children should not be expected to sit for more than five minutes at a time. My stomach grew tight at the memory of being forced to sit outside in the hall at school during holiday or birthday celebrations, wishing fervently I could join in and then feeling guilty for my "bad heart condition". The horror described in this book is very real in the lives of countless JW children and wives. If they are not beaten physically, their spirits are still beaten down so that they will never question what they are told to do. I highly applaud Ms. Castro's masterpiece and highly recommend that anyone, former JW or not, enlighten themselves with this very touching account of a very serious subject.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A stellar narrative,
By
This review is from: The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses (Hardcover)
I'm a former JW and this book brought back memories both bad and good. In between telling the story of the turns and twists of her JW childhood, Dr. Castro mentions details that are worthy of additional chapters. Even as an academic in my 40's, it wasn't until I read this book that I realized how the rhetoric of submission, even slavery, was used to justify control. I never even noticed that "district overseer" and a "circuit overseer" are positions from the language of slavery, not humble Christianity. Castro illustrates numerous misplaced priorities, such as those that punish a smoker but allow a man to abuse his children. Surprisingly, there are even bits of humor, such as an aside on the phrase "Satan the devil." It's never just "Satan" or the "devil", but always "Satan-the-devil." As opposed to what, "Satan-the-gerbil"? Her opening description of the faculty interview process had me in stitches and set the stage perfectly.
She honors the goodhearted people in the congregation and gives them credit with specific and sympathetic character sketches, but she also shows the destructiveness and hardheartedness of many of the policies that tell good people to do the wrong thing. There are implicit criticisms of the religion and its cultivated worship of the leadership in Brooklyn. But it is in her descriptions of people that she most excels - they are presented in three-dimensional terms - no stereotypes here. The book rings with authenticity; she is trying very hard to be as fair as anyone could. There is no purple prose. She isn't pushing any agenda. She reports, and in the process tries to assimilate, understand, get and give insight. Those of us who continue have to do that. She does it with writing, reading, teaching, helping - doing the things that were undervalued but have become all the more meaningful for that now. Her stepfather is horrible. Period. Her adoptive mother (and even her beloved father) say things that still make me quiver a little, resonance of a deep chord of empathy. Follow the thread of the brother - concern for him and self-judgment for not doing "enough" for him haunts the text. As harrowing as this story is, it also focuses on details of her redemptive experience. It narrows in on the little things that enabled her to navigate her environment, the things she valued and cherished that helped her to continue, to confront certain kinds of situations and, later, to thrive. It offers guidance and hope, and I think that it will be a source of understanding and strength for many. Like her, I feel that my love of reading may have saved me. I read the book in one sitting, and finished it deep in the night. I was unresponsive while reading, so absorbed in her story as it evoked - and intertwined with - my own memories, that I didn't even acknowledge my husband when he spoke to me. Deep in the night when I finished, I let go of my inward world a little. I cried, then laughed, and finally looked up at the stars in wonder and peace. What more could one ask?
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