The Other Side: A Memoir Paperback – Deckle Edge, July 15, 2014

Anyone who has been following my book reviews, knows that I'm a huge fan of Tin House. Lacy M. Johnson's memoir, The Other Side is a new offering from Tin House and as soon as I saw it advertised, I had to read it.PLOT- Lacy M. Johnson fell in love with a Spanish professor who was teaching at the college that she was attending. He was charming and handsome at first, but when she moved in with him, the abuse started. After several years of putting up with his erratic behavior and both physical and mental abuse, Johnson left him. She thought that he had left the country, but instead he was waiting and plotting revenge. He kidnapped Lacy and brutally raped her, threatening to kill her. She would have been dead, if not for his mistake of leaving her alone, tied up, giving her enough time to escape. Although she escaped, she is left with scars and he fled the country, making it impossible for her to feel safe.LIKE - Johnson's story is a powerful force that is impossible to put down. I think the style is what works best. She writes in a finessed stream of consciousness. She floats between flashbacks to her childhood, the abusive relationship, the rape and her life after the rape. She teases out the information about the rape, not divulging the full details until the very end of the story. This may sound sick, but I kept reading, wanting to know exactly what he did to her. It was horrific and upsetting. It was a strong choice to keep this at the end of the story, as it added to the tension.I also like that we knew early on, that in the end, she was able to marry a nice guy and have kids with him. This sense of a happy ending, made the horrific portions easier to bear. Johnson is raw and honest, but never tries to make the reader pity her. This makes her a compelling protagonist worth rooting for.DISLIKE- The only very minor negative, is that when Johnson switched between flashbacks, it sometimes took me a few moments to realize that a switch had occurred. Occasionally, the transitions were not as clear as they could be. However, this was only in a handful of sections and usually the floating between timelines worked very well.RECOMMEND- Yes. A huge yes! The Other Side is a very powerful memoir and Johnson is brave for sharing her experience. I would especially recommend this to anyone who has or is currently in an abusive relationship. It would also be good for younger women who are starting to date, as a cautionary tale for understanding what is unacceptable behavior and where it could lead.

MemoirLacy M. JohnsonThe Other Side: A MemoirPortland, OR: Tin HousePaperback, 978-1935639831 (also available as e-book and audiobook)232 pages, $15.95July 2014“Just inside the door, they will find a dog collar, construction supplies, and a soundproof room. I have told them what to expect. Meanwhile, waiting alone in the car under the dark shadow of an oak tree I start seeing things: no shadow is just a shadow of an oak tree…When The Detective returns, he finds me knotted into thirds on the floorboard: hardly like a woman at all.”The Other Side is the National Book Critics Circle Award– and Edgar Award–nominated memoir from Lacy M. Johnson, who was kidnapped, imprisoned, and raped by a former boyfriend in 2000. This is her story of the before, during, and after. Johnson also tackles universal issues women live with: the illusion of power as puberty works its alchemy and men begin to pay attention to girls who are still children, regardless of the new swell of breast and curve of hip; the sense of always being on stage, under constant evaluation; the popularity of Dead Girls in our culture.The Other Side is not a linear, chronological memoir but written in fits and starts, as if it’s too much to sustain for long. Johnson’s writing is at once removed, as if disassociated, and searingly personal. Instead of names, she capitalizes common nouns that change depending upon the role the person currently performs and it is peculiarly affecting: My Spanish Teacher becomes The Man I Live With becomes The Suspect.Johnson has much to say about memory and how “even what the mind forgets, the body remembers.” Her use of rhythm and repetition is practically poetic.“But the mind goes thrashing so wildly. The body lays itself down on a clear plastic sheet, hears but does not listen to the soup of human-like speech boiling in its ears, spilling exactly the length and width of the room. The mind skitters safely out of reach….But the mind goes thrashing. The mind goes thrashing away from the body, which does not move a muscle, does not move an inch from the spot in which it is unraveling, will be unraveling, has been unraveling since.”Johnson survives and goes on to become a professor, published writer, wife, and mother. She has the help of a husband who refuses to participate in her campaign to annihilate herself. She struggles with motherhood: how to keep kids safe without suffocating them, how to deal with their demands that remind her of The Suspect’s childishly vehement demands, how to open her heart again.“I’m afraid the story isn’t finished happening. Sometimes I think there is no entirely true story I could tell. Because there are some things I just don’t know, and other things I just can’t say. Which is not a failure of memory but of language.”Johnson has granted us the privilege of honesty by including every shade of grey. If there is a failure of language in The Other Side I cannot find it.

Lacy M. Johnson is an amazing writer. She pulls you into her terrifying story in a manner that mimics reality and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Her story is powerful and unearths the misconceptions of a patriarchal society toward women and the abuse of women. Her's is a highly personal and powerful story that reveals the complexities of being female in a male-dominated society and how to break free from internalized patriarchy. Johnson manages to take a terrifying experience and use it to transform our consciousness. This is a must-read.

Poetical in places. Maddening in other places. Got tired of the Schrodinger's cat paradox metaphor. It's cruel for one thing, and if the box is airtight, the cat will suffocate and end the stupid paradox. Got tired of the labels in caps ("My Handsome Friend"). It was distancing and annoyed this reader. Page 176 -- she was raped by a drunk boy at 14 (age ?). WTF? That is mentioned once? It may have set the stage for all the drinking and poor decisions to follow. Not blaming, just observing that a chunk of her psychological story is missing.