After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back

Rating:
Summary: Liz Kent Low Fiber Book Reviews
Review: Absolutly brilliant! Nancy objectively discusses rape from
historical and psychological angles while relating the
story of her own nigthmarish attack and her long journey
back to mental health. Points of interest include her
observation that what was once called "hysteria" would
now be properly classified as PTSD. She also discusses
Freud's betrayal of women. But her single most important
theme is that silence is corrosive. Or as the AIDS
awareness literature of the 80's stated so astutely:
Silence = Death.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for everyone!
Review: An exceptional book on a very difficult subject. Ms. Raine captures many of the issues and concerns that rape victims must face. Most importantly, as a victim of rape she captures the emotional turmoil that surrounds all aspects of this life changing experience. As a rape victim I felt and went through many of those same experiences. I serve as a major in the US Army and I recently published "Ultimate Power Enemy Within the Ranks". I was raped 6 years ago by my Battalion Commander. The process that I went through was brutal. Recovery ... years ... continues.

During speaking engagements I encourage others to read "After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back". It serves as a useful tool for others and for victims to learn about and understand the process that women go through as they recover from rape. The most horrible aspect of being a rape victim is that you do not understand the what or why of what is happening as you struggle to recover. I believe that the education of others on that process will help victims, families, friends, and those in the work place deal with this very difficult issue and make the recovery process for the victim less painful. "After Silence ... does that and more.

I admire Ms. Raine for her courage and determination to make a difference. To say "Thank You" is not enough for her contribution to our communities in writning this book. It should be required reading in every high school.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding helps
Review: I bought this book for my girlfriend to help her find ways to recover from a very brutual attack that occurred when she was much younger.

This book was very effective for her because it paralleled her experience: a prolonged assault involving extensive contact with her attacker. In addition, it addressed the Post Tramautic Stress Disorder (PTSD) problems she has been encountering as a result of the attack.

If someone you love has suffered from an attack, books like this can help both you and them understand what has happened and how they might be feeling. My girlfriend had trouble articulating her feelings about the attack and this book (and others) helped her overcome her difficulties and express herself.

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Summary: An incredible journey for any survivor to take
Review: I read this book shortly after my own personal attack and rape and I have to say, it got me through some of the worst times.

This books tells you a story of a woman whose right to her body is taken away, and the horrible aftermath it leaves. But it also leaves you feeling connected through similiar experiences, and educates you about common misconceptions and falsities in rape statistics and information. Reading this book helped me feel less alone, and also gave me information to empower me to try to go out and help fight the terror that is violence and rape against women, or anyone for that matter.

Rape survivors and non-rape survivors alike should read this book. It's gripping, heartwrenching, and will certainly open your eyes, as well as your heart. You're definitely not the same after having read this book. Incredible.

Rating:
Summary: After Silence
Review: Nancy Raine's After Silence, her firsthand account of her rape and her life after the rape, is compelling, illuminating, and essential reading. Brutally honest, Nancy shares her private story of surviving and recovering from rape.

Raine helps her readers understand the severe and often lifelong psychological consequences of being victimized, the ambivalent reactions of other people to rape survivors, and the personal anguish in recovering from being raped. Raine elucidates her feelings of helplessness and terror during the rape, her treatment by the legal and medical system, other people's reactions to her rape, and her social and emotional isolation after the rape. She leads us through her coming to terms with the rape, with the new person she feels she becomes, with other people's reactions, and with her post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Through Raine's words, we watch a severely traumatized woman learn to regain control of her life and learn to trust and love again.

Raine's book raises many important questions: Why the shame of being a victim of rape? Why is the victim blamed? Why do some people still think that rape is "assault with a friendly weapon?" Why people's ambivalent reactions to rape? Why the silence?

Raine decided to end the silence about rape by bravely sharing her story with the world. Why should she be ashamed? She is the victim; she did nothing wrong. She purposely and insistently breaks the taboos about rape to try to pave the path for rape victims to speak out about this abominable and prevalent crime.

There were an estimated 9 million women raped in the United States alone between 1972 and 1991. In the United States, a woman is raped every two minutes; eighty-three percent of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime; only twenty-six percent of rapes are reported to the police. Over fifty percent of rape survivors suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which can include the reexperiencing of the attack through nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks; the avoidance of thoughts, feelings, places, and activities associated with the rape; difficulty concentrating; mood swings; and a diminished interest in former activities. These are just a few of the many terrifying and eye-opening statistics about the prevalence and seriousness of rape (in this country alone!)

Books like After Silence are necessary to combat the public's denial and apathy about the pervasiveness and seriousness of sexual crimes on women. After Silence can also help rape survivors understand that they are not alone and that their reactions to being raped are "normal." The general public should read the book so they can better understand the experience of being raped and life after rape. Hopefully the public and the legal system will learn to more supportive to rape survivors and more committed to ending (sexual) violence against women.

Reviewed by Vanessa Jackson

Rating:
Summary: outstanding book
Review: Nancy Venable Raine writes very movingly about rape and recovery. Not only does she share her own personal experience, which is horrifying and then reassuring as she starts to recover, she comments on the theory on rape as well as society's understanding of it.

Raine is a very skilled writer and she makes this topic sound poetic, in the sense of epic poetry which is often about tragedy. But as she points out, the idea of the "heroic" victim overcoming adversity through toughness is not the right one for rape. Instead, she says that recovery occurs through experiencing grief, rage, and loss.

The chapter "Ancient Anniversaries" about Demeter and Persephone, is profound. We are obsessed in this culture with youth and strength, and we refuse to hear about loss and weakness. That I think is a major reason why Raine had so much trouble when she started speaking out about this. For every person who understood, it seemed there were two or three who were insensitive and refused to hear. In the end, I think that refusal to face loss is very damaging to both individuals and society.

Rape is a lot more like murder than it is like consensual sex. I think it is about killing the victim's soul, so that physical death is the next logical step. Raine recognizes that rape and death are alike (or even, the same) but (I think) does not take her conclusion far enough. She calls her insight "bizarre" instead of saying that society's views are seriously messed up and that her experience is better than any theory as a guide.

This is one of the best accounts of rape and recovery out there, and I think it is a major contribution.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Raine's book is a validation of my emotions and feelings since I was raped. I turned each page wondering what she would say next...all the while feeling that she was reading my mind. She gives an account of her rape and her plunge into depression as well as her rise to the life she thought had delivered her to the "got over it" column. But her life continues with depression hanging on. Her words and her life are confirmation that those survivors out there can actually FEEL they have a life worth living for...and that patience is a virtue.

Rating:
Summary: A voice for the inner world of rape survivors
Review: Reading this book will show you that you are not alone. Nancy Venable Raine talks extensively about the damaging effects of being silenced, and of keeping the secret. She expresses that rape is a death and that healing is a discovery of who you are. My sexual abuse began so early in life that I cannot remember who I was before the sexual violation started. Each rape that I endured was another death, and now I am seeking to find life. I was thankful to read the story of a rape survivor who knew a life before rape (It helped me to better understand myself, and the effects sexual assault has had on my life and development).

Nancy writes with such poetic detail that you feel the depth of terror in her experience, but you also feel incredible joy that she survived to be the person that she is.

At times, the way Nancy describes her experiences of PTSD it was like reading my own story. It is amazing the way that trauma effects us so similarly, and altars our brain structures and who we are. By sharing our stories, we understand that we are not alone. By seeing ourselves in another person we realize that these strange feelings are common reactions to trauma, and we are not crazy, stupid or failures (as I would sometimes conclude about myself). Seeing that the perceptions that I have of my own trauma are shared in other people's experiences I realize that I also already know the way out of my own trauma. Nancy Venable Raine offers fabulous insight into PTSD, and it's effects on brain chemistry.

In addition her telling and understanding of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone (Originally "The Hymn to Demeter") was one of the best and most touching that I have ever read. Another great book about women's journeys to sexual healing (including a telling of the myth of Demeter and Persephone) is "Aphrodite's Daughters" by Jalaja Bonheim.

On Page 243 of "After Silence" Nancy Venable Raine says, "The way back from victimization is not triumph over adversity. It is transformation through grief, rage, and loss." I feel that transformation is a very accurate description and it is within our hands to achieve.

Rating:
Summary: read this, and set yourself free
Review: this is an amazingly written piece of work. i am 20 yr. old college student who lived through a date rape experience that changed me forever. after it happened, i wasn't sure if what i was feeling was normal, because i didn't anyone else who had experienced being raped, or knew how to verbalize it as well as this author. it set me free to see that no matter what your circumtance are around the assault, there are many women out there who have beeen through the same emotional roollercoaster. knowledge is power, this is a most read.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful insight
Review: What a wonderfully honest book! It shares the heartbreak of what rape does to the human soul. I also highly recommend reading Peaceful Heart: A Woman's Journey of Healing, by Aimee Jo Martin....a book that is a true testament to the human spirit.