Could you throw me a line? Please?

Powerful Cover, English Edition.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins.

Oh, this book wore me down a bit, in a good way. The “good” noted like a whip and a sigh, it is an excellent book, as I read along, there was a hand in my gut that just kept getting tighter and tighter and I just had a phrase in my mind for a good chunk of it: Damn, she doesn’t stand a chance.

Frannie. How could she win? How many times someone can be broken?
Madame. Is it so surprising that broken people, in fact break everything around them?

I think a great deal of the history of humanity is the anonymous loss of wonderful potential. Racism and subjugation being the perfect tool for it. I don’t know at which point the concept of potential emerged. Halfway in the means of possibility and expectation. Sometimes we wish to think that there is always room to flourish or prevail in adversity, like an emergency door on the back that leads to freedom, safety and fulfilment. But what if the door is invariably locked? you may try to lockpick, force it… something… but to no avail, because we are human after all. At times, I read about someone that survives a terrible plight, like those crazy people who kidnap a person and lock them in the basement for years, a few can escape or overpower the kidnaper, but not everybody can and people ask questions… why didn’t you… such and such? Like, really? We expect the superhuman in terrible circumstances and I don’t know why. It is a triumph to survive as it is sometimes.

Another shot of this handsome cover.

Along our protagonist, noteworthy elements drawn in the story, giving it a nice depth. Frannie´s life as a “free” person, that shines in the auto indulgence and comfort of the people in privilege. Everything should be good now! Right… it is lunacy to think so, as if it is expected for you to run after breaking your legs. The edge to relationships in a terrible power disparity, the amazing mental gymnastics to justify and debate “scientifically” the humanity and capacity of a group of people in service of greed.

The downside I found is lack of detail in some poignant events, but at the same time, it weirdly fits. For example, the exchanges between Madame and Frannie at the end had very little detail, but if you consider the drug addled state they were, well… it figures, huh? But it still feels like info is missing.

I tend to go more for the human aspect of things, there are lots of themes to munch here.

It is heartbreaking and beautifully written.