CAUTION:SOME READERS MAY FIND THIS REVIEW DISTURBING
"In the house Genie was confined to a small bedroom, harnessed to an infant's potty seat. Genie's father sewed the harness himself; unclad except for the harness, Genie was left to sit on that chair. Unable to move anything except her fingers and hands, feet and toes, Genie was left to sit, tied-up, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year. At night, when Genie was not forgotten, she was removed from her harness only to be placed into another restraining garment - a sleeping bag which her father had fashioned to hold Genie's arms stationary [...] In effect, it was a straitjacket. Therein constrained, Genie was put into an infant's crib with wire mesh sides and a wire mesh cover overhead. Caged by night, harnessed by day, Genie was left to endure the hours and years of her life".
The above sounds like the worst horror story you could ever imagine, yet it was real life for Genie. In fact, for thirteen and a half years, it was the only life she knew. Genie's father believed his daughter to be mentally retarded and felt that it was his job to protect her from the evils of the outside world. Sadly, his idea of protection was to imprison, to restrain, to isolate and to deprive his daughter of almost all sensory stimulation.
Life outside the confines of her bedroom prison began for Genie when her abused mother finally rebelled and left home, taking Genie with her. Yet Genie's escape into reality was fraught with problems. As well as being a severely abused child, she was also an unprecedented opportunity for scientists to investigate language acquisition in children - to discover how exactly children learn to talk. What could Genie contribute to science and how much could science ethically ask of her?
Russ Rymer's first book, Genie: A Scientific Tragedy documents the efforts made to balance scientific experiment and exploitation with caring for Genie and trying to make her into a normal human being. It details the squabbles and petty jealousies between the various professionals, all of whom wanted to use Genie as a research subject to further their knowledge of their own particular specialities.
This is a serious book, one that alternates between telling Genie's story, outlining the basic scientific theories in child development and describing other cases of so-called feral children of which there have only been around 50 cases documented over the past 700 years. Written by a journalist, the book briefly discusses the theories of eminent names in child development such as Piaget and Chomsky, relating them to the gradual development of Genie, a child who simultaneously experienced her first menstruation and toilet training. On occasions, the author has a tendency towards complexity and there are times when the narrative perhaps strays more deeply into theory than necessary. Genie is not only a child in crisis, but also the subject of endless debates and arguments between all those who come into contact with her. Scientists, academics, researchers, caregivers and teachers all seem to selfishly want to exploit her uniqueness - to be the one person to break through the wall of silence that has surrounded her for so many years.
The books of Dave Pelzer have recently raised child abuse to a new level of awareness in the public consciousness although I don't feel that Genie has the same popular appeal. It is written in the style of investigative journalism with a more serious, even slightly intellectual slant. It is as much about ethics as it is about child abuse, yet most of all, it is about Genie, a little girl who survived. But survived at what cost?
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN:0060924659
Price: $12.50 (£8.20)
Date Reviewed: June 2002
My Rating: 4/5
