Overview

A riveting and devastating memoir, Time After Time reveals the slow and inexorable damage done to a child by an emotionally abusive parent. It's the 1950's, the age of modern conveniences and upward mobility. In a middle class Boston suburb, where mothers stay home to raise children and fathers take trains to the city, life is peaceful. But inside what appears to be a typical nuclear family, one child is living a nightmare. Susan's mother is systematically stripping away her rights, her sense of belonging, her activities, her access to family life and her self-respect, until she has nothing left but food, clothing and shelter. Her father, a devout Christian Scientist, as well as her sister, brother, extended family, neighbors and friends witness the constant bullying and oppression her mother inflicts on her and don't know how to intervene. Susan realizes at an early age that she must endure her situation alone: every day, time after time, for years to come. The author's courage to survive in the face of emotional deprivation, as well as her ultimate triumph, commands us to speak out for the children in our midst who are suffering in silence.