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The Invisible Girls: A Memoir (2013)

by Sarah Thebarge(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1455523917 (ISBN13: 9781455523917)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Jericho Books

review 1: I wanted to like this book, I really did. It was recommended to me by a dear friend who is also a writer, and the topic of immigrants and poverty and spiritual growth are close to my heart. But I can't recommend it. Either the writer is too young to be writing memoir or she is still too close to the events in the book to be able to provide much depth or perspective. I think it's the former, because the tone is self-absorbed and self-congratulatory (we are told about two dozen times that the little girls shriek and race to hug her each time she arrives at their apartment). The spiritual journey is shallow and not well fleshed out, although it's supposed to be a major part of the book. The structure is clunky and the time frame is hard to follow; she's always moving back and... more forth in time with no markers. I'm afraid I don't have much good to say about it. On to the next memoir on my list...
review 2: This is a touching and inspirational story, all the more remarkable for being true. Sarah Thebarge was a 27 year old physician's assistant, raised in a strict, fundamental Christian home. She had a handsome boyfriend who shared her faith, a great job, a promising future. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer which, when it strikes young women ,tends to strike hard. In Sarah's case it was no different. A double mastectomy was followed by a recurrence, then radiation and chemo. Eventually abandoned by her friends, and finally, even her boyfriend, Sarah decides to move to Portland, Oregon and start over.While there, she has a chance meeting with a family of Somalian refugees on the train one day. She recognizes their poverty and barely concealed desperation and, on a whim, gets their address and decides to follow up with them. She finds that Hadhi is single-handedly raising five girls under the age of ten, with virtually no resources. Her first visit to the apartment finds no furniture, no extra clothing, no toilet paper or cleaning supplies, and the five girls sharing a meal of moldy bread dipped in ketchup. She has to take action, and what follows is a story of grace, redemption, and healing.Sarah finds a common thread with these "invisible girls," and in the course of helping them, finds solace from her own emotional and spiritual scars. less

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