Vozes do Retrato - Dalton Trevisan

A gathering of 15 chronicles and short stories which picture the day to day life habits of boring, broke and bitter Brazilians. Really not my type of book. Thank goodness the book was real thin as I couldn't make myself enjoy reading it as much as I did try to - I am surprised I even made it until the end... honestly, just another book in my list. If you don't want to be bored to death I highly suggest you in not even picking up this book.  

Since the book was not worth reading, I won't be posting a book review on it but instead will add below a bit on the writer, Dalton Trevisan:

Biografia

É reconhecido como um importante contista da literatura brasileira por grande parte dos críticos do país. Entretanto, é avesso a entrevistas e exposições em órgãos de comunicação social, criando uma atmosfera de mistério em torno de seu nome. Por esse motivo recebeu a alcunha de "Vampiro de Curitiba", nome de um de seus livros. Assina apenas "D. Trevis" e não recebe a visita de estranhos.

Trevisan Trabalhou durante sua juventude na fábrica de vidros de sua família (hoje falida) e chegou a exercer a advocacia durante 7 anos, depois de se formar pela Faculdade de Direito do Paraná (atual UFPR). Quando era estudante de Direito, Trevisan costumava lançar seus contos em modestos folhetos. Liderou o grupo literário que publicou, entre 1946 e 1948, a revista Joaquim. O nome, segundo ele, era "uma homenagem a todos os Joaquins do Brasil". A publicação tornou-se porta-voz de uma geração de escritores, críticos e poetas. Reunia ensaios assinados por Antonio Cândido, Mario de Andrade e Otto Maria Carpeaux e poemas até então inéditos, como "O Caso do Vestido", de Carlos Drummond de Andrade. A revista também trazia traduções de Joyce, Proust, Kafka, Sartre e Gide e era ilustrada por artistas como Poty, Di Cavalcanti e Heitor dos Prazeres. A publicação, que circulou até dezembro de 1948, continha o material de seus primeiros livros de ficção, incluindo Sonata ao Luar (1945) e Sete Anos de Pastor (1948) - duas obras renegadas pelo autor. Em 1954 publicou o Guia Histórico de Curitiba, Crônicas da Província de Curitiba, O Dia de Marcos e Os Domingos ouAo Armazém do Lucas, edições populares à maneira dos folhetos de feira.

Inspirado nos habitantes da cidade, criou personagens e situações de significado universal, em que as tramas psicológicas e os costumes são recriados por meio de uma linguagem concisa e popular, que valoriza os incidentes do cotidiano sofrido e angustiante. Publicou também Novelas Nada Exemplares (1959) e ganhou o Prêmio Jabuti da Câmara Brasileira do Livro. Como era de se esperar, enviou um representante para recebê-lo. Morte na Praça (1964), Cemitério de Elefantes (1964) e O Vampiro de Curitiba (1965). Isolado dos meios intelectuais e concorrendo sob pseudônimo, Trevisan conquistou o primeiro lugar do I Concurso Nacional de Contos do Estado do Paraná, em 1968. Escreveu depois A Guerra Conjugal (1969), posteriormente transformada em um premiado filme, dirigido por Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Crimes da Paixão (1978) e Lincha Tarado (1980). Em 1994 publicou Ah, é?, obra-prima do estilo minimalista. Seu único romance publicado é A Polaquinha.

Perfume

Much to my surprise I finished this book in an incredibly quick space of time - the reason of this surprise is because the book has a whole lot of narration and very few dialogues - something that I usually cringe at when reading a book. But this time it was different. I didn't even notice the lack of dialogues and conversations and read long paragraph after long paragraph uninterruptedly. 

 I would describe Grenouille as an exotic monster. The fact that he is born an orphan and his whole childhood and teenage years are hard and cruel on him made me pity the character that I would later find out is nothing but a horrid man with an exceptional acute sense of smell. Throughout the whole book he seeks his "meaning in life" until he finally discovers what it is: create the most sought after scent of all - the scent of love. He reaches his goal but doesn't get what he always wanted: the desire to be loved himself.

Yes, this book is highly disturbing - but that's what makes it such a splendid read. 

The message is ingenious and beautiful at the same time: What every single man and woman wants is to love and be loved back. And that's what Grenouille tries so hard to do throughout the whole story (using the most despicable and gruesome methods) - he tries to make others love him. But we can't make others love us if we don't love ourselves. That is the principle of attraction. People that are highly attractive and that have the ability to draw others to themselves are people that like their own company, know their high points and see their own potential. And yet Grenouille fails to see turning his whole arduous search and horrendous crime into nothing but deception until the end of his sad, sad life.

It's a magnificent read and a mind opening allegory! Read it!

WIKIPEDIA ON "PERFUME":

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical cross-genre novel (originally published in German as Das Parfum) by German writer Patrick Süskind. The novel explores the sense of smell, and its relationship with the emotional meaning that scents may carry. Above all this is a story of identity, communication and the morality of the human spirit.

The story focuses on Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume apprentice in 18th century France who, born with no body scent himself, begins to stalk and murder virgins in search of the "perfect scent", which he finds in a young woman named Laure whom his acute sense of smell finds in a secluded private garden in Grasse.

Plot

Grenouille (French for "frog") is an unwanted Parisian orphan who, having no personal scent (learned later in the narrative), is rejected by others because they are unwittingly disturbed by him, later understood to the reader as stemming from his lack of odour. He has an extraordinary power to discern odours, and comes to loathe the scent of other people. He becomes apprenticed to a tanner at the age of eight, and after work explores the city. One day he smells a divine scent and follows it, and is shocked to find that the source of this beautiful scent is a young virginal girl just passing puberty (14-15 years old). He gets closer to her, unnoticed, to get a better smell of her scent. When leaning in and becoming more intoxicated by the divinity of her scent she notices him and begins to scream, so he holds her mouth shut, accidentally suffocating her while continuing to be enamoured of her scent. But he learns that soon after death the scent dissipates and is lost. He vows to himself that this is his life's purpose, to regain that scent.

In his quest to isolate and preserve scents, he becomes apprenticed to a once great perfumier, Baldini, and proves himself a talented pupil. His supernatural power to discern and dissect scents helps create wondrous perfumes and makes Baldini the most popular perfumier in Paris. But Grenouille's abilities are unmatched by the technology and Baldini has to step in and stop him when Grenouille learns that he cannot isolate the scent of inorganic materials, such as glass and iron. At this enlightenment Grenouille falls ill with smallpox, presumably psychosomatically as a reaction to his body giving up on life as his quest can never be fulfilled. Yet Baldini has grown to cherish Grenouille for his skills and while on his deathbed Baldini reveals to him that there are techniques other than distillation that can be used to preserve such odors. At this news, Grenouille miraculously recovers and resolves to journey to the city of Grasse, the home of the greatest Perfumiers, to further his quest.

On his way to Grasse, Grenouille travels the countryside and reflects on his disgust with the scent of humanity. As he travels between cities and escapes the "sour cheese" stench of humanity, he dreams of escaping scent altogether, reveling in the idea that after having experienced the most divine scent imaginable (the plum slicing girl) that he could escape the influence of the world and find the deepest, darkest hole to literally crawl into and merely reflect on his memories of his most beloved scent experiences. He quickly turns off the beaten path and spends seven years in a cave on top of the Massif Central. It is more like a slanted well than a large cavern, and he crawls deep into it until the light has stopped and he cannot go another further. There he wedges himself against the stone and falls into a sort of meditation, spending all his waking hours imaging himself in a vast and grand library inside his mind, served by scentless spectres who bring him "vials" of his favorite scents. And every day before he falls asleep he is brought the scent memory vial of the plum slicing girl, and falls drunk with its splendor before sleeping. He leaves the cave only to eat enough insects and scraps to survive, addicted to lounging in the scent library of his mind. One day he wakes with a start from a nightmare of being suffocated by his own body odor and to shake off the confusion he, for the first time, examines his own scent. Going layer by layer from his surroundings and through his (now tattered) clothes and down to the grime and dirt he is covered in, he soon realizes with a shock that he has no personal scent at all. He takes on an existential fear, for the first time, that without a scent he has no place in existence, in the universe, that he is not truly a part of reality and that without a scent he is literally nothing. And so he once again resolves to capture the scent of the plum slicing girl, but has no put it to himself to create the world's most divine scent to have for himself, to show the universe that he exists and that his talents do not resolve him to be nothing.

Grenouille journeys to Montpellier where an amateur scientist, the Marquis de La Taillade-Espinasse, uses Grenouille to test his thesis of the "so-called fluidum letale". The Marquis combines a treatment of decontamination and revitalization for Grenouille, and subsequently, Grenouille looks like a clean gentleman for the first time in his life. Grenouille in turn tricks his way into the laboratory of a famous perfumier. There he creates a body odour for himself from ingredients including "cat shit," "cheese," and "vinegar", whereupon he is finally noticed by society. Previously not even an eyelash would bat if Grenouille had walked right in front of someone's face, but his new "disguise" can make heads turn and he feels accepted by society, but it is only a test of his abilities and he has grander plans yet.

Finally moving to Grasse, Grenouille once again becomes intoxicated by the scent of a young girl transitioning through puberty to womanhood, Laure. He believes her scent to be on par, if not greater, than that of the plum slicing girl, but also believes that she is not quite mature and plans to allow for two years more years until he can capture her scent at its peak. Meanwhile he embarks on filling out the rest of the notes in his ultimate perfume. As it has been told that there are 12 notes, 4 chords, in a perfume and that the ancient Egyptians believed in a 13th divine note, which Grenouille believes he can harness using the matured scent of Laure. To capture the scents of 12 other post-pubescent virgins Grenouille realizes that the only viable method involves murder. And as he is generally unnoticed, when out of his "disguise", he begins a soulless career of serial murder of the 12 virgin, young women around Grasse with the most beautiful scents.

Eventually, after the 2 years of murders have passed, Laure's father pieces together the pattern of murders and realises that Laure, the most beautiful and beloved young woman in the city just passing puberty, is most likely to be the next victim. He flees with Laure to hide and protect her, but Grenouille pursues them and kills Laure, capturing her scent.

Grenouille is apprehended soon after completing his perfume and sentenced to death. On the day of his execution the intoxicating scent of Laure combined with the backdrop essences of the 12 virgins he murdered, overwhelms all present, and instead of an execution the whole town is overwhelmed by a mix of divine reverence and carnal passion, erupting into a massive orgy.

Grenouille is pardoned for his crimes, blessed and revered, and Laure's father even wants to adopt him. But the experience of the power, looking at the peoples' reaction, has dissatisfied Grenouille, because he is not loved for himself, but for the perfume which he created. He realises that he had always found gratification "in hatred, in hating and being hated", not love. As his existence has not been validated by his creation, but merely disguised once again. He decides to return to Paris upon finding that the satisfaction that he initially felt has transformed itself into hatred and disgust.

In Paris, Grenouille approaches a group of low-life people (thieves, murderers, whores, etc.), who do not notice him approaching. He deliberately douses himself with the rest of the vial of his divine perfume while standing among the group. Overcome with the carnal passion and divine reverence, even moreso than the people of Grasse, they literally tear him to pieces and devour the remains. After the passion wore off, the people look around and feel slightly disgusted having just eaten a human being, but they have an overwhelming internal sense of happiness. They are "uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love."

Não Se Esqueçam da Rosa - Giselda Laporta Nicolelis

This story revolves on a young girl called Hanako. Her father, Aiko was a young survivor of the Hiroshima Bomb who came to Brazil still in his childhood. Because of his exposure to radioactivity during the war his reproductive cells are affected and his genes are transfered to his  firstborn, Hanako. 

The author writes with a clear  and childlike manner but the message and simplicity of the story is what keeps you reading until you find yourself incapable of being able to stop.

A few things which touched me in this book:

 - Hanako's constant joy and desire to live despite her sickness. How she doesn't rebel against what has happened with her but tries to make the very best out of it.

 - A bit of the beauty of the Japanese culture.

 - Wars, bombs, killing and manslaughter lead to nowhere. It's a dead end street.

 - We all pay for our actions - we might have to pay the consequences for an action that has happened even  many, many years ago. What comes around goes around.

 - Humanity shows its true face during the greatest catastrophes.

Here is a beautiful poem that is in the end of the book which I will include here (sorry, it's in Portuguese):

A Rosa de Hiroshima

Pensem nas crianças

Mudas telepáticas

Pensem nas meninas

Cegas inexatas

Pensem nas mulheres

Rotas alteradas

Pensem nas feridas

Como rosas cálidas

Mas oh não se esqueçam

Da rosa da rosa

Da rosa de Hiroshima

A rosa hereditária

A rosa radioativa

Estúpida e inválida

A rosa com cirrose

A anti-rosa atômica

Sem cor sem perfume

Sem rosa sem nada

Memories of My Melancholy Whores

I really didn't get the main character of this book. I tried, I really did! But maybe the difference of our ages was what made my tentative a flop. He isn't either a horny old man nor is he a charitable one. The writer gives the impression that the old man finally "finds love" (which is in the form of a young, poor, scared 14 year old virgin) in his very old age. But I can't really agree with this improbable form of "love" because in my point of view I see it more like an old man that is finally feeling guilty for his past sexual experiences and wants some kind of consolation before his miserable life ends. Okay, I might be a bit too harsh on the old man but hey - talk about pedofile!!! 

But other than my sorid thoughts on the book I have to give credit to where credit is due: the writer is fantastic! He knows how to capture the reader's interest and have him engaged in some captive trance as he reads page after page nonstop (as such was my case!). His slyness and sarcasm are both cunny and witty. 

If nothing else García Márquez captures another side of love (or lust - or more likely, both!) and with that he completes quite some feat!

Book Review:

BECAUSE the great subject of the fiction of Gabriel García Márquez is time, no reader of his luminous, strange new book should fail to be aware of exactly how much time its author has spent on earth: on the day of the publication in English of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores," García Márquez will have lived 78 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days, and he continues to write, as he so often has, about the people for whom time has seemed to stand still. He has always been most interested in the extremely old and the extremely young - for the reason, I think, that our first experiences of the world and our last are the ones that stop us in our tracks, and turn the long confusion of our days into something like stories.

The hero and heroine of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" are a 90-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, both nameless, who meet periodically in a room in Rosa Cabarcas's brothel - "the theater of our nights," the old man calls it - and, more constantly and more vividly, in his fevered imagination, where the curtain never comes down. The nonagenarian narrator is the latest in an illustrious line of cranky, obsessive García Márquez geezers, of which the most memorable, perhaps, is the romantic madman Florentino Ariza, whose determination to woo and win in his 70's the woman who spurned him in his 20's is the perpetual-motion machine that powers "Love in the Time of Cholera." But the writer was only in his late 50's, a mere pup, when he invented Florentino Ariza and granted that elderly fool for love the belated fulfillment of his desire. These days, García Márquez needs a dirtier, older dirty old man just to satisfy his insatiable taste for novelty, his lust for sudden and unforeseeable accesses of meaning, his itch to probe the mysteries of last things.

And the central codger of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" seems, at least at the outset, a very dirty old man indeed. The story begins, with García Márquez's characteristic hit-the-ground-running conciseness, like this: "The year I turned 90, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." A superb opening - Edith Grossman's translation is, here and elsewhere, elegant and exact - but not, perhaps, the sort of statement that generates waves of good feeling toward the speaker. The peculiar charm of this narrator, though, is that he really doesn't give a damn what his audience thinks of him. "I'm ugly, shy and anachronistic," he writes, by way of introducing himself, and he's just warming up. "I am the end of a line, without merit or brilliance," he calmly informs us; and despite enjoying some local fame as a critic and newspaper columnist in his native La Paz, he admits to being "a mediocre journalist." His lechery is, in fact, among his more attractive qualities; it is, in any event, one of the few areas in which he has truly distinguished himself. "I have never gone to bed with a woman I didn't pay," he writes, and with sheepish pride reports that he was "twice crowned client of the year" in the city's red-light district.

That brief moment of boastfulness is a rarity in "Memories of My Melancholy Whores." Mostly, this old man is beyond pride, and beyond shame, too. Because García Márquez doesn't often tell his tall tales in the first person, and because the story inevitably evokes comparisons to "Lolita," readers might expect this little book to be more of a departure from its author's usual, unmistakable style - the lulling, deadpan bedtime-story tone that has always enabled him to get away with both murder and the more improbable kinds of love. Some might even manage to persuade themselves that this monologue is, like Humbert Humbert's, an ironic apologia, a literary game whose object is to catch the speaker out in his evasions and self-deceptions.

But that's not at all what García Márquez is up to here. The cunning of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" lies in the utter - and utterly unexpected - reliability of its narrator. This daft coot is, in his way, as trustworthy as St. Augustine (whom he does not, I hasten to add, otherwise resemble) because his story is, like the saint's, a conversion narrative. His reason for writing, he says, is to record "the beginning of a new life at an age when most mortals have already died," which means, of course, that he has no motive to be anything but brutally honest about the now-despised former life, the 90 years, to the minute, he "wasted" (his word) before seeing the light.

Effective Learning - Alan Mumford

This is a short and handy little manual for those who want to grow and learn. 
Alan Mumford gives a general description of the four learning styles which was what I liked the most in the whole book.
The following are abbreviated versions of preferred ways of learning for each learning style:


Activists 
Get fully involved in new experiences 
Open minded and enthusiastic 
Will 'try anything once'
Revel in crisis management, 'fire fighting'
Get bored by detail 
Reflectors 
Prefer to stand back and observe 
Look at all angles and implications 
'Chew it over' before reaching conclusions 
Take a back seat in meetings and discussions 
Theorists 
Think problems through logically, step by step 
Assimilate disparate facts in coherent theories 
Rigorously question assumptions and conclusions 
Don't allow their feelings to influence decisions 
Uncomfortable with subjectivity, creative thinking
Pragmatists
Keen to try out new ideas to see if they work 
Like solving practical problems and making decisions 
Emphasise expediency - 'the end justifies the means' 
Impatient with long-winded or open-ending discussions 

Based on these preferences, different activities are likely to produce different responses in the learners. Selection of learning method should take your preferences into account but effective learning demands the achievement of a balance between the four styles. If you have a high activitist style you will learn best from activities where: - 
You can become involved with new experiences 
There is excitement and drama 
You can have high visibility, e.g. chairing a meeting, giving a presentation 
You are thrown in at the deep end 
You are involved with others 
You can ‘have a go’ 
You will enjoy business games, role-playing exercises and competitive 
teamwork tasks 
If you have a high reflector style you will learn best from activities where: 
You are allowed to watch and think 
You can stand back and observe others 
You can think before acting 
There is research involved 
You can review what has occurred 
You will enjoy assignments 
If you have a high theorist style you will learn best from activities where: 
There is an obvious system, concept or model you can follow through 
There is time to explore the relationship between ideas and events 
You can ask questions 
You are stretched intellectually 
There is a clear purpose and reason to the learning 
If you have a high pragmatist style you will learn best from activities where: 
There is an obvious link between what you are learning and the working environment 
You are shown practical techniques for solving problems 
You have a chance to practice techniques to check they work in practice 
You are provided with an immediate opportunity to put into effect what you have learnt.


After reading the whole and full description of each learning style I stopped a moment to figure which was my learning style (by the way, I am Pragmatic and Activist) and then went on to make a mental review of each one of my students placing them in one of the above definitions. This little mental exercise was mind opening for me because it made me notice how a certain student that seems like a lost case and just "never learns" could turn out into a top notch student if I only changed my approach, modified my teaching method and adapted myself to his learning needs - and all this just by identifying his particular style of learning. As you can guess, an Activist is less likely to learn if I use the same approach I would use for a student that is a Theorist.
I already started using the above information in regards to my teaching and am seeing remarkable results!!!
A few other pointers which Alan Mumford outlines are the following:
 - Each one of us has to find a learning method that works for us, build a learning plan and then use it to develop our abilities.
 - Learning is all about motivation, needs and  personal interests - those are the driving factors in each person's learning process.
 - We should always learn with difficulties, hardships and problems - but we shouldn't limit ourselves to only that - we should make it a point to learn with success and personal conquests as well!


And last, but not least, remember: LEARNING IS A DAILY, NEVER-ENDING PROCESS!!!



Description
Progressive training programmes not only equip managers with basic skills and competencies, but deploy innovative, wide-ranging learning strategies to ensure continuous development. Specifically designed as flexible support material, "Training Extras" provides a simple framework to structure learning. This comprehensive series covers all the crucial skill areas for the first-time manager or supervisor, providing: the key issues in an easy-to-read style; diagrams, models and charts for clarity and quick reference; helpful starting points to build confidence and encourage "hands-on" practice; practical advice and tips based on real-life management issues and examples. 

Amar Pode Dar Certo

“Love Can Work Out"...funny how this phrase sounds so cliché - something that we expect to hear in a happily ever after couple story, romantic movie or to see in a billboard. 

And that's pretty much what I was expecting when I started reading this book: another self-help love book for desperate women and relationships that are falling apart.

But from the very first chapter I was proved wrong. The authors explain a very interesting theory which they call "the equilibrium point". Here is how they explain it:

"There is an experiment in behavioral psychology that exemplifies how the human being limits itself in love. A scientist puts a mouse in a cage. At first, it will walk from one side to another, moved by curiosity. When it feels hungry it will go towards food. By touching the plate, in which the researcher has installed an electric circuit, the mouse will take a great shock, a shock so strong, that if it doesn't quit touching it, he might even die. After the shock, the mice will run in the opposite direction of the plate. If we could ask him if he is hungry, he would answer "certainly not" and that's because the pain caused by the shock causes him to despise the food. After some time, however, the mice will come in contact with the double possibility of death: death from shock or starvation. When the hunger becomes unbearable, the mouse will slowly start moving back towards the plate. In the meantime, however, the researcher turned off the circuit. The dish is no longer electrified. However, as it reaches to almost touch it, the mouse will have the feeling that he took a second shock. There might be tachycardia, goose bumps and he will run in the opposite direction of the plate. If we asked what happened, the answer would be: "I took another shock." They forgot to warn you that the power was off! Thereafter, the mouse is entering a very great tension and it's goal now is to find a middle ground between the point of hunger and the food which gives it a certain ease. This is called equilibrium point, because it represents a position between doing something to eat while avoiding a new confrontation..."

Reading the above I couldn't help but identify myself and the first question that popped in my mind was: "Am I getting shocks without even touching the plate?" and by honestly answering my question I discovered that yes, I was. 

How many times I held myself from inviting someone to go the beach, a movie or dinner out of fear of rejection? How many times I stood and suffered alone because I didn't want to "disturb" or "be a burden" when asking for a listening ear. How many times I gave up on phoning or sending a simple message just to say "hi" fearing I might come out as stupid or corny or even "needy". 

Because of past experiences in which we are hurt badly we end up closing ourselves off to many great and wonderful experiences just because we refuse to suffer again. And we try to convince ourselves saying "I won't make myself vulnerable" but what we are actually truly doing is letting others have control over our own feelings and giving them the power to make us feel glad, mad or sad. 

And in our fear of giving in to love we give in to loosing life's greatest pleasures: friendship, romance, companionship, strong family bonds, a good conversation, etc. and who is really missing out in none other than ourselves. 

By the time I reached the last pages of this book I decided that I wouldn't let myself miss out on so many things in life out of fear of a little electric shock. Instead, I will give in to love and enjoy the very best life has to offer me!!!

 Sinopse do Livro:

Este livro nasceu para ajudar a inverter uma mentalidade que se está a estabelecer no mundo de que amar é algo sempre doloroso, frustrante e complicado. É importante que ao invés de nos decepcionarmos com o amor, nos questionemos a respeito da nossa forma de amar, sobre as estruturas das relações amorosas e sobre os objectivos que se tem quando se vive com alguém. O objectivo deste livro é ajudar você a voltar a acreditar profundamente em coisas simples tais como: amar, namorar, casar, conversar, acariciar, e principalmente acreditar em você mesmo. Chega de pessimismo. Amar pode dar certo!

3069 Days - Natascha Kampusch

I walked into the bookstore. Picked up this book at 5:00 pm and only left the bookstore at 10:00 pm (they were already closing for the day) when I had reached and finished the very last page. This story shook me up, woke me up and made me think soo very much.


Natascha Kampusch was a 10 year old Austrian girl who became famous as being one of the longest captives ever. Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil kidnapped her with a white delivery van and kept her as his captive in a dungeon for 3096 days - until the day she was able to escape and from there tell her story - a story that shocked the whole world!!!


She starts her book telling her life as a child. Her distant relationship with her mother. She describes her mother as a very overprotective woman yet at the same time one that taught her to hold her feelings and emotions because that is what it took to "be strong". Natascha comments that as much as she disliked having always to act so strong that was a determining factor in having been able to stand those long eight years captive. Natascha: a scared, chubby and insecure child; on her first day walking to school alone. Wolfgang Priklopil: A sick psychopath in search of a slave. 
Second of March of 1998 was the fatal day. Only 3069 days later would she be able to look back and see all she had been through. From starvation, hard labour, extreme violence, psycological abuse, hunger, loss of loved ones - she endured it all - and with a shocking courage and determination.
Of course, there are the marks and traumas which she will have to carry throughouth her whole life - but the overcoming of it all is what made this story stick out and cause such a great impact on me.
My words could never do this book justice and so my advice is: read it yourself. Let it shock you, shake you and speak to your innermost thoughts as it did with me.


Here is a bit about Natascha Kampusch (From Wikipedia):

Natascha Maria Kampusch (born 17 February 1988 in Vienna) is an Austrian television hostess mostly known for her abduction at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998. Kampusch was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006. The media attention later led to her signing a contract with Austrian channel Puls 4 for her own talk show, which had its premiere on 1 June 2008.

Kampusch was raised by her mother Brigitta Sirny (née Kampusch) and her father Ludwig Koch, in Vienna, Austria. Her early life with her mother was reportedly not a happy one, according to Ludwig Adamovich, head of a special commission looking into possible police failures in the investigation of the kidnapping. He claimed that "the time Kampusch was imprisoned might have been better for her than what she experienced before", a statement absolutely refuted by Birgitta Sirny, who threatened to sue the commission chief over these remarks. 

Early years and family

Her family included two adult sisters, and five nieces and nephews. Sirny and Koch separated while Kampusch was still a child. Kampusch spent time with both of them, and had returned to her mother's home from a holiday with Koch the day before her kidnapping.^[2][3]

[edit]Kidnapping

The 10-year-old Kampusch left her family's residence in Vienna's Donaustadt district on the morning of 2 March 1998, but failed to arrive at school or come home. A 12-year-old witness reported having seen her being dragged into a white minibus by two men,^[4][5] although Kampusch did not report a second man being present.^[6] A massive police effort followed, and 776 minivans were examined,^[7][8]including that of Priklopil, who lived about half an hour from Vienna by car in the Lower Austrian town of Strasshof an der Nordbahn, near Gänserndorf. Although he stated that on the morning of the kidnapping he was alone at home, the police were satisfied with his explanation that he was using the minibus to transport rubble from the construction of his home.^[9]

Speculations of child pornography rings or organ theft were offered,^[10] and officials also investigated possible links to the crimes of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret.^[11] Kampusch had carried her passport with her when she left (she had been on a family trip to Hungary a few days before) and the police extended the search abroad. Accusations against Kampusch's family complicated the issue even more;^[12] there have even been 

unsubstantiated allegations that Kampusch's mother was somehow involved in the abduction or its cover-up.^[13]

[edit]Captivity

During the eight years of her captivity, Kampusch was held in a small cellar underneath Priklopil's garage. The entrance was concealed behind a cupboard. The cellar only had 5 m² of space (approximately 54 ft²). It had a door made of concrete and was reinforced with steel. The room had no windows, and was soundproof.^[14] For the first six months of her captivity, Kampusch was not allowed to leave the chamber at any time, and for several years after her kidnapping she was not allowed to leave the tiny space at night. Afterwards, she spent increasing amounts of time upstairs in the rest of the house, but each night was sent back to the chamber to sleep, and while Priklopil was at work. However, in later years, she was seen outside in the garden alone,^[15] and one of Priklopil's business partners also said that he met Kampusch near his home when her kidnapper, Wolfgang Priklopil, called and came to his home to borrow a trailer.^[16][17] After her eighteenth birthday, she was allowed to leave the house with Priklopil, but her kidnapper threatened to kill her if she made any noise.^[18] He later took her on a skiing trip to a resort near Vienna for a few hours. She initially denied that they had made the trip, but eventually admitted that it was true, although she said she had no chance to escape during that time.^[19]

According to Kampusch's official statement after her escape, she and Priklopil would get up early each morning to have breakfast together. Priklopil gave her books, so she educated herself, and according to a colleague of his, she appeared happy. Later, when explaining that in general she did not feel she had missed anything during her imprisonment, she noted, "I spared myself many things, I did not start smoking or drinking and I did not hang out in bad company". But she also said: "I always had the thought: surely I didn't come into the world so I could be locked up and my life completely ruined. I give up in despair about this unfairness. I always felt like a poor chicken in a hen house. You saw my dungeon on television and in the media. Thus you know how small it was. It was a place to despair." Dietmar Ecker, Kampusch's media advisor, said Kampusch told him Priklopil "would beat her so badly she could hardly walk. When she was beaten black and blue, he tried to smarten her up. Then he would take his camera and photograph her".^[20]

Priklopil had warned Kampusch that the doors and windows of the house were booby-trapped with high explosives. He also claimed to be carrying a gun, and that he would kill her and the neighbours if she attempted to escape.^[21] Nevertheless, Kampusch on one occasion fantasized about chopping his head off with an axe, although she quickly dismissed the idea.^[22] She also attempted to make noise during her early years of captivity by throwing bottles of water against the walls.^[22] She said that on trips out with Priklopil she had attempted in vain to attract attention.^[22]

[edit]Escape

The 18-year old Kampusch reappeared on 23 August 2006. She was cleaning and vacuuming her kidnapper's BMW 850i in the garden. At 12:53pm, someone called Priklopil on his mobile phone, and he walked away to take the call because of the vacuuming noise. Kampusch left the vacuum cleaner running and ran away, unseen by Priklopil, who, according to the caller, completed the phone call without any sign of being disturbed or distracted. Kampusch ran for some 200 metres through gardens and a street, jumping fences, and asking passers-by to call the police, but they paid her no attention. After about five minutes, she knocked on the window of a 71-year-old neighbour known as Inge T, saying, "I am Natascha Kampusch".^[23] The neighbour called the police, who arrived at 1:04 pm. Later Kampusch was taken to the police station in the town of Deutsch Wagram.

Kampusch was identified by a scar on her body, her passport (which was found in the room where she had been held), and by DNA tests.^[24] The young woman was in good physical health, although she looked pale and shaken and weighed only 48 kg (approximately 106 lb), almost the same weight (45 kg) as eight years earlier when she disappeared. She had grown only 15 centimetres (approximately 6 in).

Sabine Freudenberger, the first police officer to speak to Kampusch after her ordeal, said that she was astonished by her "intelligence, her vocabulary". After two years Priklopil had brought her books, newspapers, and a radio, which she kept tuned mainly to Ö1, an ORF station that is known for promoting education and classical music. She also states that she constantly had a feeling that she lacked something: "a deficit. So I wanted to make that better and I tried to educate myself, to teach myself skills. I have learned to knit for example."^[25] Priklopil, having found that the police were after him, killed himself by jumping in front of a suburban train near the Wien Nord station in Vienna. He had apparently planned to commit suicide rather than be caught, having told Kampusch that "they would not catch him alive".^[26]

[edit]After escape

In her official statement she said "I don't want and will not answer any questions about personal or intimate details".^[27]

In the documentary, "Natascha Kampusch: 3096 days in captivity", Kampusch sympathized^{[citation needed]} with her captor. She said "I feel more and more sorry for him - he's a poor soul", in spite of having been held captive for eight years by him,^[28] and according to police she "cried inconsolably" when she was told he was dead,^[29] and lit a candle for him at the morgue.^[30] She has, however, referred to her captor as a "criminal".^[31]

There is also speculation that Kampusch may have Stockholm syndrome as a result of her ordeal.^[32][33] She said "my youth was very different. But I was also spared a lot of things – I did not start smoking or drinking and I did not hang out in bad company".^[34]

In her book "3096 Tage" (3,096 Days) published in September 2010, Kampusch denies she has "Stockholm Syndrome." She suggests that people who use this term about her are glibly disrespectful of her right to describe and analyse for herself the complex relationship she was forced to have with her kidnapper. In her autobiographical work she does not shy away from describing the ruthlessness and hideous cruelty Priklopil exposed her to, describing in detail the hideous physical and psychological abuse he exposed her to. But at the same time Kampusch is able to discuss the occasions where he gave her gifts, and to see him as a weak and pitiful creature, and not simply a monster. In "3096 Days" she repeatedly expresses her world view that there are many shades of grey in life, nothing (in her opinion) is all black or all white.

During her first interview, Christoph Feurstein asked her if she had been lonely during captivity. Kampusch snapped "what a ridiculous question" and left the room, returning after a brief pause. In 2009 Kampusch became the new face of animal rights group PETA in Austria. In June Kampusch wrote to Ilse Aigner, agriculture minister in Germany where the campaign is based, demanding freedom for zoo animals, stating: "The animals would, if they could, flee as I did, because a life in captivity is a life full of deprivation. It is up to you whether social, intelligent and wonderful creatures are to be freed from their chains and cages where ruthless people keep them."^[35] In January 2009, Vienna's public prosecutor stated that DNA tests and questioning of witnesses had led to theories being discounted that Wolfgang Priklopil had an accomplice. Natascha Kampusch has also maintained that her captor acted alone.^[36]

[edit]Interviews

After reportedly "hundreds of requests for an interview" with the teenager, "with media outlets offering vast sums of money", Kampusch was interviewed by Austrian public broadcaster ORF. The interview was broadcast on 6 September 2006 after her approval. ORF did not pay for its interview,^[37] and said any proceeds from selling the interview to other channels would be forwarded to Kampusch. The interview was sold to more than 120 countries at a fee of 290 euros per minute. This money—estimates say some hundred thousand euros—will be donated to women in Africa and Mexico by Kampusch. Likewise she plans projects to help these women. As of 6 September interest has been enormous.^[38]

The newspaper Kronen Zeitung and news magazine NEWS also interviewed Kampusch. The interview was published on 6 September 2006. Both press interviews were given in return for a package including housing support, a long-term job offer, and help with her education.^[39]

New developments^[40][41] challenged the Austrian government in February 2008. Politicians of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) threatened to break up the newly formed SPÖ–ÖVP ("red–black") coalition government in April and May 2008.^[42] Kampusch said that she had lost confidence in Austrian justice. Revelation of mistakes in the interior ministry's investigation of her kidnapping came to light, as well as statements of a policeman which were repeatedly ignored in 1998.

On 16 June 2008, the newspaper The Times published an in-depth interview with Kampusch by Bojan Pancevski and Stefanie Marsh.^[43]

On 17 February 2010, the British TV channel Five broadcast an exclusive hour-long interview with Kampusch, entitled Natascha: the Girl in the Cellar.

[edit]Books

The book Girl in the Cellar: the Natascha Kampusch Story^[44] by Allan Hall and Michael Leidig appeared in November 2006, written in English. Kampusch's lawyer described the book as being both speculative and premature and therefore planned to take legal action against it.^[45]

Together with two journalists, Kampusch's mother wrote a book about the ordeal, Verzweifelte Jahre ("Desperate Years"). Kampusch appeared at the initial presentation of the book in August 2007, but did not want to be photographed or interviewed. Her mother writes that she did not have much contact with Kampusch after the escape because Kampusch was shielded from the outside world.^[46]

Kampusch wrote a book about the "3096 Tage" (3,096 Days) published in September 2010.^[47]

[edit]Media endeavors

Kampusch established her own website containing personal information including pictures of herself on 5 December 2007. She has become the host of her own talkshow at the new Austria TV station PULS 4 starting on 1 June 2008. The show had the working title of In Conversation with…Natascha Kampusch and eventually premiered as Natascha Kampusch trifft (Natascha Kampusch meets...).^[48][49]

On 17 June 2010 German film-maker and director Bernd Eichinger announced that he was making a film based on Kampusch's captivity and wanted Kate Winslet to star in the film.^[50] Bernd Eichinger passed away on 24 January 2011 and Natascha attended his funeral. ^[51]

The house

Kampusch now owns the house in which she was imprisoned, saying, "I know it's grotesque — I must now pay for electricity, water and taxes on a house I never wanted to live in." It was reported that she claimed the house from Priklopil's estate because she wanted to protect it from vandals and being torn down; she also noted that she has visited it since her escape.^[52] When the third anniversary of her escape approached, it was revealed she had become a regular visitor at the property and was cleaning it out possibly to move in herself.^[53] As of 2009, she is living in central Vienna.^[54] In January 2010 Kampusch said she had retained the house because it was such a big part of her formative years, also stating that she would fill in the cellar if it is ever sold, adamant that it will never become a macabre museum to her lost adolescence.^[55]

This video shows her dungeon. Where she spent 8 years.