3 out of 5 stars
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Out of the Bronx: A Memoir chronicles the life of Irene Sardanis. The child of Greek immigrants, Irene grew up the youngest of four siblings. After being abandoned by a Casanova father, their home descends into an abusive cycle, with harsh words and violence being doled out by her mother. Irene and her siblings, Dora, Tina, and Billy, must contend with their mother’s abusive rages and depressive episodes, being forced to mature too quickly in order to fend for themselves. In adulthood, Irene doesn’t fare much better—her first husband proves to not be up to scratch, and the second one isn’t much better. Will Irene get out of the mire of abuse and neglect and finally eke out her own happiness, regardless of the unfair hand she’s been dealt?
Irene’s story is heartbreaking and very realistic. Most of it is unfiltered, and scenes of child, sexual, verbal, domestic, physical, and mental abuse are present, and present aplenty. These warrant a content warning for interested readers, as this material may prove triggering.
Even though Irene is the central focus of the book, and the things done to her by the abusers in her life should not be overlooked or dismissed, I found myself pitying her mother and feeling deep sympathy for her. Her tale is one that I hear ever so often. Her story also hits home that, despite life offering one a terrible hand, it doesn’t give anyone leave to lash out at the people in their life. Maria—Irene’s mother—aptly showed how hurt people hurt people.
How the story is relayed left some room for improvement. It was not linearly ordered, so some parts would be spoiled from before, only to be hashed out in a succeeding chapter, or you’d think you’d see the last of one character, only for Sardanis to backtrack into more details about them. There was also some confusion that arose from none of the chapters being identified by time indicators; readers can only tell Irene’s age for that particular chapter halfway through the retelling, if at all.
I did find numerous errors in the book, and these errors led me to the assumption that the book has not been professionally edited. This isn’t to say it is not well written, but the mistakes did affect my reading experience, and, consequently, my rating of the book.
Out of the Bronx: A Memoir gets a final rating of three out of five stars. One star was removed by virtue of the mistakes I located within the book, and the other was taken away on account of the confusing shifts in the timeline. This book serves as a realistic look into the life of a child of abuse, making it suitable for readers who are able to handle triggering content. It is intended for mature audiences, and I can guarantee that fans of memoirs and autobiographies will enjoy it.
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Out of the Bronx, a Memoir
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