The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival by Alicia Partnoy Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival
Book Review: A poignant reminder not to take freedom for granted
Summary: 5 Stars
Argentina has often been a hotbed for political activism. Even those unfamiliar with foreign governments know of Juan Perón and his wife Eva, immortalized in Andrew Lloyd Webber's catchy musical, Evita. For many of us, the concept of a military coup is unfathomable -- such actions are relegated to footnotes in history books, dates learned in school and forgotten once we're tested on them. The fear that someone could barge into our homes and take us prisoner against our wills is unfamiliar to Americans. We say what we want, when we want, in ways that loudly broadcast our own beliefs, mostly without fear of reprimand or repercussion.
Alicia Partnoy's book, The Little School, is an eye-opener, to say the least. Within the pages of this slim volume lies a fictionalized account of her own imprisonment at the hands of the military that overtook her government. What makes her stories more profound is the knowledge that this didn't happen a lifetime ago but in the late 1970's, when most Americans were reveling in newfound freedoms of expression. While teenagers in the United States were expressing their views on warfare, feminism, and sexuality, their peers in Argentina were being silenced for daring to speak out against the government.
By 1979, over 30,000 people "disappeared." Most of these were young adults between the ages of 18 and 35, though Partnoy's book mentions some friends of hers who were abducted when they were merely 15 years of age. Parents watched helplessly as their children were taken by force from their homes; small children cried on doorsteps or were scooped up by relatives as their own parents were taken from them. These "disappeared" were transferred and held -- blindfolded, immobilized, inadequately fed and clothed, tortured -- in a secret concentration camp Partnoy calls "The Little School."
This book documents the stories of those imprisoned. Though the preface states that the stories are fictional accounts, the truth of Partnoy's experience is poignantly clear. Without detailing exact punishments or tortures, she nonetheless spells out clearly for her readers the agony and pain the prisoners endured on a daily basis. They were kept blindfolded and bound, forced to stand or lie completely still for hours on end in a room full of fellow prisoners with whom they were forbidden to speak.
It is the small details that make these stories so heartbreaking. A child's nursery rhyme that runs endlessly through the mind of one prisoner while being tortured. A friend's jacket that shields the guard's blows once that friend is removed from the school, possibly killed. A broken tooth kept in a matchbox that reminds one prisoner she is still "whole." The glimpses of life another prisoner catches through the bottom of the blindfold, where it doesn't quite lay flat against her cheeks. The sheer delight in catching raindrops in the palm of a hand where the window leaks during a storm.
These elements drive home the desperation and despair hinted at in the stories. They make the moments real, in a way more detailed explanations of the torture endured could not. Even without knowing the exact political views that caused the prisoners to be kidnapped and held, readers will empathize with the stories -- feeling both a lingering helplessness at the prisoners' plights and an overwhelming indignation at the injustice imposed upon the rights of fellow human beings. Such a book will encourage readers to recognize their own freedom, which many take for granted, while serving as a constant reminder to be vigilant against atrocities that endanger freedom everywhere.
Book Review: A survivor's story of grace and astonishing generosity of spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
THE LITTLE SCHOOL is a beautiful brilliant book in heartbreaking and heartening ways. The vicious brutality and sadism of the military regime and the guards is not detailed---mostly elided (she leaves that to the newspapers)---in a generous, clear focus on her fellow prisoners and their inner dignity. A book of striking humanity at its extremes.
I think she's a great writer overlooked in the hype of American literary bizness because her story of epic, unceasing bravery in the face of terror and death doesn't correspond to stereotypes of macho and military heroism conveyed by industrial culture to the youth. Instead, her various books speak of a woman's unbreakable integrity. Partnoy's unassuming storytelling delivers a perspective on this too-common modern atrocity that is new and rare, and whose astonishing generosity of spirit is fitting tribute to her peers who did not survive.
Book Review: Absolutely profound
Summary: 5 Stars
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!Book Review: Difficult but necessary
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: Emotional and Powerful
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes a story is so moving that a review cannot match the power of the author's own words and experience. This short book is such an example.
Portnoy writes about her experience as one of those taken and held blindfolded and prone in a military camp called The Little School during Argentina's most repressive military dictatorship the 1976-83 period. In her Introduction she explains the chronological history telling us that the dictatorship was a response to leftist activities among students, demands by workers for social reforms, the discrediting of Peronism, activities of the militaristic Motoneros and the teaching of Liberation Theology. She survived the camp and a second one to which she was assigned without charges ever having been brought against her. Inexplicably, she was released and sent to the United States to rejoin her daughter and her husband who had also been held. Meanwhile some 30,000 Argentines including friends disappeared forever. To this day all but a few remain unaccounted.
After the dictatorship collapsed she returned to Argentina and wrote this book of her experiences in captivity from memory. Each chapter is a short vignette of some experience as recalled years later. Kept blind folded throughout her stay at The Little School we learn to understand how she relishes the smallest of sensual experiences such as the feel and sound of rain, the forbidden and yet quite voices of her fellow prisoners, a periodic shower.
She concluded that although the guards were able to control beatings, other brutality and the fear of "viewing the growth of the radishes"...an euphamism for death and burial, they could not control her imagination. Throughout her story we learn that she attributes the use of her imagination as her tool of stability and survival. In this, her writing is reminiscent of another book Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton a novel set during the period of the junta.
For those who have an interest in this period of Argentina, or who are concerned about where our own era of terrorism concerns may lead this is must reading.