Le moins que rien

A harrowing story, so horrible that it's hard to believe it's true. Absolutely horrific. I'm glad it started with a sneak peek at the happy ending, as that made reading the book easier.

I wish Pelzer elaborated more why his mother would behave in such a way. The change from an (almost too) idyllic childhood to Hell on Earth is fast and unexplained. But maybe he doesn't know.

The story is cut short just when the going gets good. Now I have to read the second part to get a sense of justice (I hope), which is probably intentional. I wish it was all just one autobiography and not divided into three parts. Oh well.

I've just read two different articles about Pelzer's work, and now my take is: I am glad I read this book, and I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to read the rest of them. Certain quotes disturbed me:

But there is a creepier reason for Pelzermania. He has turned child abuse into entertainment. Pelzer likes to be known as the guy who "makes child abuse fun." He repeatedly refers to himself as "Robin Williams in glasses." His public appearances are manic and joking, filled with imitations of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton. He craves a career in stand-up comedy. (If Schadenfreude is joy at others' sorrow, what is joy at your own?)

Pelzer frequently purchases his own books for his signings at a discount and then sells them at list price. It is not clear whether these sales alone keep his books on the best-seller lists. The big bookselling chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders, as well as huge stores like Wal-Mart and online sellers like Amazon, refuse to release specific sales numbers. So if they sell 10,000 copies of ''A Child Called 'It''' in a week, there is no way to know whether that was made up of bulk sales or the combined individual sales from all their stores. Still, those 10,000 books would be tallied for best-seller purposes.