C.A. Wittman’s SYNANON KID: A Brief Review
This review of CA Wittman's SYNANON KID was originally on my blog in 2018.
This brief review was originally posted in my blog on June 17, 2018, notably before the recent documentaries about the cult. It's been lightly edited.
I had never heard of the Synanon cult before the book Synanon Kid came to my attention, but c’mon, we are all intrigued by such stories, right?
Well, this memoir of C.A. Wittman’s time in Synanon doesn’t disappoint.
Kidnapped in the night by two women, one of whom was her own mother, Celena spent five formative childhood years in the Synanon cult in California. While this is a story of Synanon, it is also a personal one of isolation, relationships, and love.
I appreciated Wittman’s creative narratives of her memories, including her complicated relationship with her mother and times of deep fear and loneliness within the cult. Growing up in Synanon imparted unrealistic, unstable, and untrusting views of the world on Wittman, and understandably so.
I could relate to Celena’s creation of a robust fantasy life to cope with a confusing and often violent reality as a young girl. As she grew older, she learned to talk fast and loud to avoid being taken advantage of by others. But she also turned to books, which gave her solace in the knowledge that others dealt with similar oppression and longing in their own lives.
Wittman is a talented writer of memoir; you get about as close to Synanon as you can without being there (and we really wouldn’t want to be there, right?). The reader can almost feel her hunger, fear, confusion, anger, and disappointment.
At only 274 pages, Synanon Kid is a quick and engaging read. It will appeal to readers interested in memoirs, creative nonfiction, stories about cults, or books by women of color.
To learn more:
- “Chuck Dederich Still Rules Synanon, but Now He Has 1,300 Subjects and a $22 Million Empire” by Barbara Wilkins in People (1976)
- “The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry” by Maia Szalavitz in Mother Jones (2007)
- African Americans on the Move Book Club
Title: Synanon Kid: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Synanon Cult
Author: C.A. Wittman
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pages: 274
Publication Date: July 20, 2017
My Rating: Recommended
Disclosures: I won this ebook on GoodReads and decided to review it. Thanks, GoodReads.
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