Becoming Anna / Edition 2

by Anna J. Michener

Overview

Becoming Anna is the poignant memoir of the first sixteen years in the life of Anna Michener, a young woman who fought a painful battle against her abusive family. Labeled "crazy girl" for much of her childhood, Anna suffered physical and emotional damage at the hands of the adults who were supposed to love and protect her. Committed to various mental institutions by her family, at sixteen Anna was finally able to escape her chaotic home life and enter a foster home. As an effort toward recovery and self-affirmation as well as a powerful plea on behalf of other abused children, Anna wrote this memoir while the experience was fresh and the emotions were still raw and unhealed. Her story is a powerful tale of survival.

"A teen's raw, in-your-face chronicle of events almost as they were happening. As such, it's unforgettable. . . . Michener's story gives voice to the thousands of children and adolescents trapped in 'the system,' biding their time until their 18th birthdays. A candid and unstinting tell-all."—Kirkus Reviews

"Extraordinary. . . . Michener's expressive writing does justice to a topic that is clearly very disturbing to her personally and communicates a profoundly important message on behalf of all abused and neglected children."—Booklist

"An important book, painful to read, but essential if other children in similar situations are to be saved."—Library Journal

"An innocent child's account of 16 years in hell and of the terrible wrongs inflicted on children who are without rights or caring advocates."—Choice

"[Michener] emerges as a compelling and courageous advocate for children and their welfare—she's a young writer with an extraordinary voice."Feminist Bookstore News

"Quite simply one of the best, most compelling, well-written autobiographies published in years. . . . Remember the name. We have not heard the last of Anna Michener."—Myree Whitfield, Melbourne Herald-Sun, cover story

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226524030
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/01/1999
Edition description:	1
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1030L (what's this?)

What People are Saying About This

Richard Rhodes

Sixteen-year-olds who write brilliant, original books are rare as war heroes—and usually also battle-scarred. Anna Michener's war was neglect, abuse and unjust incarceration in mental hospitals. Out of that house of fire emerges a soaring young spirit and a powerful new voice.
— (Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofThe making of the Atomic Bomb and A Hole in the World

Editorial Reviews

Institutionalized at 15 by her abusive parents, the author, then known as "Tiffany," was abused for several months by the staff of mental hospitals. Her state-sanctioned treatment consisted of overmedication, physical and emotional intimidation, illegal incarceration and painful criticism from teachers and psychiatric counselors. At the end of that year, when she was surrendered by her mother and taken in by foster parents, Tiffany became Anna. Were this a novel, sympathy for the overwriting, self-sanctifying, pathetic narrator would run awfully thin. Other, tougher kids called her "Crazy Girl," she recalls, "In a world that had never been anything but oppressive and cruel to any of us, they thought it was crazy for me to still have some innocence, some passion, some caring for other people, and some hope for a better world. They called me crazy with affection. They wanted me to stay that way." Michener might convince readers that she is not crazy, but it's hard to accept her rosy perception of herself and the demonization of nearly every authority--and parental--figure. Her vague and predictable descriptions of the mental institutions reveal less than a few minutes with One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: the "clients" are generally good, misunderstood; the staff, for the most part, are bad, bitter, soulless sadists. When Michener describes her preinstitutional diaries as "a rather disorganized mix of fact and fiction, and hardly anything was finished before the next page was talking about something new," she could almost be summing up the autobiography. Professional psychologists get paid to listen to desperately anxious remembrances and imaginings, but readers don't. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Written between the author's 16th and 17th birthdays, this is a diaristic account of growing up with an abusive family and then suffering through years in the mental health system. Michener presents her story in order to give the lie to "the idea that child abuse doesn't happen that much anymore, that genetics and biological disorders are the only other explanations for deviant behavior, and that drugs and mental institutions actually help." Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

This memoir doesnþt boast the perspective of hindsight; itþs a teenþs raw. in-your-face chronicle of events almost as they were happening. As such, itþs unforgettable. Michenerþs family of origin included a father who beat her and collected pornographic photo albums, an unstable mother who suffered from physical disease but inflicted deeper psychological wounds on her children, and a grandmother with a Ph.D. in psychology who, in a complete perversion of grandmotherly stereotypes, used to attack the author with her knitting needles. Sadly, Michenerþs story only gets worse when her parents have her committed, first to a private, then a state, mental institution. She relates one story after another of young teens who suffered from parental abuse being permanently labeled þcrazyþ and never finding help within the system. To Michener, the staff members at the mental hospital seemed far more sadistic and deranged (Nurse Ratchet types) than the patients. For the first few months, she was overmedicated, unable to walk without clutching the wall. For small infractions, patients would be kept in a urine-drenched solitary confinement cell. When Michener was 16, her mother temporarily released her from the mental hospital, and before she could be committed again, the girl moved away and became the ward of her best friendþs grandparents, who hired a lawyer and sued for custody. Michener (her adopted last name) notes in the epilogue that what bothers her most about her story is that its happy ending is purely accidental: þI simply lucked out. I had . absolutely no say in my own fate, and this is true of all children in thiscountry.þ Michenerþs story gives voice to the thousands of children and adolescents trapped in þthe system,þ biding their time until their 18th birthdays. A candid and unstinting tell-all.

Kirkus Reviews