Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407170068
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. Simon & Schuster. $22.
Sexual abuse at any age is a terrible tragedy. When the abuse occurs during childhood, the tragedy is magnified. Now that the topic is no longer taboo, it seems to have reached the proportions of an epidemic. Somewhere in this wave of revelations, therapists have appeared, purporting to aid their patients in "recovering" lost memories of childhood abuse. Some, no doubt well-intentioned, would have us believe that they can identify sufferrers by their behavior, even by their movement. When the "victim" professes not to recall childhood abuse, the therapist proclaims it is only because the victim is still in the denial phase. The afternoon TV talk shows hawk such drivel!
Michael Yapko is a psychologist in clinical practice and he has some interest in the nooks, crannies and quirks of memory. What he offers in this book is a useful, skeptical corrective to the wild claims of other therapists who claim to recover lost memories for their patients. It is one very humane and useful matter to counsel a patient with spontaneous memories of abuse; it is wholly another and often a mischevious one to suggest that current problems MUST be linked to lost memories of abuse and that all will be well if the patient will only confront the obvious.
The author is useful and direct in making his point. The prose is simple and the evidence more anecdotal than scientific. The book, however, is too long. A feature magazine article about the length of two chapters could have achieved the same end.
- SIDNEY BARRITT
Irene's Last Waltz.
By Carole Nelson Douglas. Forge. $22.95.
A comparison that immediately comes to mind about Irene Adler Norton's\ escapades in Carole Nelson Douglas' newest "Irene" romantic mystery is that of\ a late-19th-century female Indiana Jones. This time, the intrepid Irene travels\ from her home near Paris to the city to be dressed by the one and only Worth\ himself. The murder of one of the seamstresses hired by Worth intrigues Irene\ as does the surprisingly sad plight of Clotilde, the new Queen of Bohemia, whom\ Irene meets at the famous fashion salon. Add the Baron Rothschild, Sherlock\ Holmes and a daring Russian spy who will, seemingly, do anything necessary to\ thwart Irene and to entrap Irene's new husband, and you've got a tale of\ adventure that would challenge Indiana Jones' most fantastic feats.
The first person narrative comes primarily from Irene's observant yet naive\ friend and companion Nell Huxleigh, but a couple of chapters are narrated by\ Sherlock Holmes' friend and associate Dr. Watson, who first introduced Irene in\ "A Scandal in Bohemia." Prague, the capitol of Bohemia, becomes the main\ setting for this tale of struggling politics involving power and money. Only\ Irene's clever skills and enormous beauty (aided by Charles Frederick Worth's\ designing genius) can hope to unravel the mysteries including a King who seems\ equally unable to recognize Irene even in disguise as he is to surrender his\ country to the might of an expansionist Russia.
The fact that the book (and Nell) don't seem to take themselves overly\ seriously greatly helps the reader through the convolutions of Irene's\ adventures. More will almost certainly follow.
- HARRIET LITTLE
\ Sidney Barritt is a Roanoke physician.\ Harriet Little teaches at James River high school.\
by CNB