to be saddened and confused by this section in Waterstones

[SlightlyUndead]

I know this is going to come out wrong and I will probably get flamed...

There are now so many paperback biographies/ autobigraphies written by adults who were abused as children that it has it's own section on our local Waterstones. I remember seeing David Peltzer interviewed a few years ago when "A Child Called It" was first published. It was one of the first
bestsellers of this kind, the interview was harrowing and deeply upsetting and I understood that writing it down was a kind of therapy for him. If the process of writing a book about such awful experiences helps with the healing process in some way, I'm all for it. But what I don't really understand is the 'popularity' of such books. I did read 'A Child Called It' in the light of all the publicity and obviously found it very upsetting. I am not saying we should 'close our eyes' to such things but surely if you really care, you can donate to/do work for the NSPCC or Childline. I have seen mothers in the playground reading one of these books after another and I just can't help feeling that there is something a bit gratuitous (spelling?) and voyeristic about it. The more 'horrific' the childhood, the better read?

Oh this does seem to have come out a but wrong but what I am trying to say is that it seems that these books are now a reading genre in themeselves now and I just find it disturbing that there is an appetite for it. But then I don't ever read any 'gory details' in the newspaper if it involves children being hurt....

Maybe I am missing something? I am happy to have it explained to me.

Horrible. There is a whole section in my local library called something like Abused lives. and they have a whole row, all with white spines and a handwriting kind of font. Every single one.

Oh yes and that ludicrous 'The Secret' shite.

Basically just wish for something for years and believe you are entitled to it, and it'll happen.

Where the fuck is my castle in Spain, then?

at prole porn, mind you I read Take A Break in the doctors once, was really quite impressed by the tone of it, had campaigns about feminism etc and was actually quite good.

On Waterstones website they appear under

Fiction > True Stories > Endurance and Survival.

Fiction and True Stories - how does that work then?

I came across one the other day called 'Ma, he sold me for a few cigarettes'. Sometimes I think people get paid just to make this stuff up to feed the market.

They are truly disgusting.

Is that a real one then 'ma he sold me for a few cigarettes'

I thought that was a joke.

The one called "My Godawful Life" is a piss-take.

Oh Yes (here), and there are sequels...

I wonder whether the reading of these is appealing to the same instincts that made people attend public hangings. Sort of "see suffering and know it isn't you" as a comfort thing.

I knew it was a pisstake, linked to it earlier

I work in a bookshop in Ireland, we have them as a subsection of biography called 'personal stories'. There are two ladies who buy them all. They also love the nursing autobiographies (the East End midwife and others) where there is a lot of blood and death. True crime has a wider range of readers where I am - there have been a few high profile murders here, of women by husbands or partners - they seem to appeal to many more readers. Penny Dreadfuls as someone said, would be the closest 'genre'. They aren't my cup of tea, but neither are the works of Jordan, John le Carre, Barbara Taylor Bradford and others. Do people think they should not be available - and should publishers, libraries or booksellers be the place to ban them?

My stepmother loves these books which I find a bit weird tbh. She has even called one boring/crap ( not sure which title) because it didn't have much abuse in it.

I have read a few pages of one of these books and could not read anymore, it made me feel ill. I dont understand how anyone can read book after book of the stuff. I dont watch films with rape scenes in for the same reason, it often seems filmed in a way to excite, not repulse.

maybe publishers shouldn't be commissioning them? that's where the buck stops IMO. Of course they make shitloads of money from them though.

OK, cathartic entertainment, something that gives your emotions a workout, is a good thing, or at least something that many people need. However, something which has always struck me as odd is that the sort of people who will read misery lit for their thrills are the sort of people who go all catsbumface about horror films and horror fiction. Whereas I think it is far more immoral to get your safe jollies out of what is at least supposed to be a real live person's traumas, than to enjoy the 'safe scare' of a detailed, alarming, upsetting novel where no one has needed to be harmed in the making of it.

I would wagere that a high percentage of people who read this kind of thing also believe social services turn up on doorsteps and snatch children away.

I would rather chew off my own arm than read any of this shite

I wonder if publishers commission them or do they get sent manuscripts... I think Simon Hoggart had a title suggestions discussion in the Guardian, and the winner was 'No Grandad not on the face'. Even the blurbs make me shudder.

They're awful.

But with all the Cuts & my shit childhood, I am putting pen to paper

Unquietdad, maybe you have stumbled across a new untapped genre, combining Mind, Body and Soul and Tragic Lives -

'No, No Daddy not my horn - A Unicorn's life on Shit Street'

I bloody hate them.

The way they all look the same - that handwriting font, black and white picture of a kid looking tearful.

Can you imagine slogging your way to university, getting a sought after internship in a respected publishing house, and end up working on this shite. Your soul must shrivel.

Ma, I'm Gettin Meself a New Mammy
Ma, It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed

Beyond magnificent.

'Ma, ahm cleaning oop with mee book deals an tha'