Such a Pretty Picture
Such a Pretty Picture is a shocking memoir about surviving sexual abuse.
Andrea Leeb’s powerful memoir Such a Pretty Picture explicates the long-term consequences of and process of recovery from abuse.
As a graduate student and later as a university instructor, Leeb’s father was a respected member of society. In the privacy of his home, however, he molested his daughter. Although Leeb’s mother witnessed an incident firsthand and suffered from temporary blindness as a result, she ignored the indications of ongoing abuse. Leeb learned that, to hang on to her mother’s love, she had to remain compliant. Meanwhile, her younger sister Sarai was hit by their father.
Although the abuse ended in Leeb’s adolescence, its effects, including occasional suicidal ideation and bouts of depression, endured. As a teenager, Leeb found herself in vulnerable situations with boys, unable to defend herself from groping hands. Later, it was difficult for her to commit to long-term relationships. She was twice divorced after short marriages.
The abuse begins on the first page, with a shocking scene in which Leeb’s father masturbates while giving his four-year-old daughter a bath. The event, relayed from the point of view of a little girl who doesn’t understand what is happening, has clear implications. As Leeb grew older, her awareness of the wrongness of her father’s touching and her sense of helplessness increased. In time with this growing introspection, a sense of dread and anxiety permeates the pages.
The prose is direct and unvarnished, covering with clarity how Leeb gave in to her father’s demands to tamp down his temper. Anguish is conveyed in scenes as of Leeb being sent to a psychiatrist for exhibiting signs of stress; when she hinted at what was happening to her, the doctor dismissed her words and reported them to her parents, rendering her even more powerless and distrustful.
The memoir is novelistic in structure, with remembered conversations reconstructed as dialogue. Period details like halter tops, beehive hairdos, and Pink Floyd playing on cassette tapes, as well as references to events such the assassination of President Kennedy and Leeb’s parents’ participation in antiwar protests, flesh out the 1960s–1970s setting well. And although it covers harrowing experiences at length, the book ends on a hopeful note, with Leeb seeking ways to heal.
Such a Pretty Picture is a raw memoir about incestuous abuse. Its pages underscore the damage that continues in the aftermath of such trauma.
Reviewed by
Suzanne Kamata
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
