My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival
One of Argentina's 30,000 "disappeared", Alicia Partnoy was abducted from her home by secret police and taken to a concentration camp where she was tortured, and where most of the other prisoners were killed. Smuggled out and published anonymously, THE LITTLE SCHOOL is Partnoy's memoir of her disappearance and imprisonment.
Paperback, 180 pages
Published
September 3rd 1998
by Cleis Press
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
246)
Alicia is a survivor of the Argentine dictatorship of the 1970's who was taken without legal process to a secret prison and tortured there. In Argentina these secret prisons are often called "concentration camps" but to me that term is being used for emotional weight and is inaccurate. Camps are open air, hold large numbers of inmates, kill with disease and forced labor as much as by violence, and their existence is publicly acknowledged to maximize terror. None of this was true in the...more
This is a really quick read, I finished it in an hour and a half. The author skips back and forth between first person and second person and between talking about herself and then other people but not making it clear which person she is talking about.
I wouldn't have read this if I didn't have to for one of my classes. I don't think I would have been able to get through this one so easily if this was the last book out of all the war, rape camp, depressing books we read in that class.
One thing I...more
I wouldn't have read this if I didn't have to for one of my classes. I don't think I would have been able to get through this one so easily if this was the last book out of all the war, rape camp, depressing books we read in that class.
One thing I...more
Argentina has often been a hotbed for political activism. Even those unfamiliar with foreign governments know of Juan Perón and his wife Eva, immortalized in Andrew Lloyd Webber's catchy musical, Evita. For many of us, the concept of a military coup is unfathomable ~ such actions are relegated to footnotes in history books, dates learned in school and forgotten once we're tested on them. The fear that someone could barge into our homes and take us prisoner against our wills is unfamiliar to Amer...more
ok, i'm going to go out and say the awful thing first: there are some major issues with the craft of this book. it's half-brilliant, half-cringe-inducing from a technical standpoint.
the content is difficult and important. The Little School is a series of vignettes dealing with an Argentine concentration camp. the book is moving, funny, startling. it asks questions that have no answers, but should.
the content is difficult and important. The Little School is a series of vignettes dealing with an Argentine concentration camp. the book is moving, funny, startling. it asks questions that have no answers, but should.
It looked so good, but it was disappointing. I didn't particularly like the writing style, and I didn't think that the character development was as good as it could have been. It had potential, but just never drew me in. However, it is a sad part of history that I never knew about.
I was doing research for a Spanish paper. This book looked so interesting and good that I sat down and read it at the library. It took me around an hour. It was a quick read and very informative. I recommend people go to the library and learn a little about Argentina's history.
very quick read, very profound topic. The change in point of view didn't distract me as it did some others, for I didn't think the point was so much who things were happening to, but rather that they happened at all. I recommend it for anyone interested in Latin America.
view 1 comment
Most readers are confused by the shift in the narrative voice, and it's best to approach these stories as testimonial vignettes of the Little School, a detention center and torture chamber emblematic of many during Argentina's "dirty war." Partnoy remembers and recollects her experiences as a political prisoner, and her writing serves as an act of resistance and political testimony (this served as evidence against Videla). While many of the guards were exonerated of their torturous dee...more
Was the most amazing book. Very easy to read. But it is a very sad a scary book, so don't think it is an uplifting type of book. I guess you can look at it this way the author was one of many that "disappeared" in the Dirty War.
Short but heartbreakingly sad reminder of the costs of torture - to its victims, to the people who carry it out, to the government that sponsors it, and to the society that allows it to take place.
Powerful and poetic. A quick read.
I first read this book in the late 1980s when working on my degree for Latin American Studies. It is only one of many books on this subject, however Alicia Partnoy's voice is so clear that the reader is present in the concentration camp - as frightening as this may be. Her simple human beauty also shines through the pages of this very sad tale - she may show anger and cynicism, but is never overcome by hate.
This is based on an Argentinian woman's experience in a sort of torture camp and then in prison. It is simply written and is a little disorienting because it takes you into a normalized perspective on captivity. It is a quick read (i read it on the bus this afternoon)and pretty informative of a pretty common (world wide)experience.
Compelling story, but written poorly. Constant tense switching, switching the main characters in each chapter so that you have no idea which one you're following, and shifts from the first person to the third person frequently.
The author wrote about her experiences as a "disappeared" person under the Argentinian dictatorship. It's an amazing story written in both English and Spanish about survival and freedom.
Interesting parts.
A heartbreaking account of the author's experiences as a "disappeared" person in Argentina - very short, powerful and poetic.
A very inspiring story about a women's survival in Argentina.
Renae
added it
Carol
marked it as to-read
Denise
marked it as to-read
Vanessa
marked it as to-read
Shawn Minihan
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
