Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780671247638
ISBN number: 0671247638
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 341
Printing Date: August 31, 1979
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Sale Popularity Level: 638989
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Rated by buyers -
Millet's 1979 true crime case study bills itself honestly--the book consists of medications on a situation, and the reader is left to sort through the meditations for the structure. The topic at hand is the brutal slaying of teenaged Sylvia Likens by her foster mother and a gang of her foster mom's children and neighborhood boys. Sylvia was tortured for months in the basement of her foster home before one incident went too far and led to her demise (after defecating on herself, suffering burns, and being crudely branded on the abdomen with the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it.") Depraved matriarch Gertrude convinced her gang of torturers to cover up the crime, but after Sylvia's blood sister confessed, the truth spilled out from the other children.
Part One consists of meditations on the crime, on the motivations of the abusers, and on the motivations of Sylvia in not seeking help. The section meanders and circles around to the same events, reading like an unedited magazine piece. The book really takes off in Part Two, when Gertrude and her one loyal child commit glaringly obvious perjury on the stand. The third and final section is a very first person account of the abuse from the perspectives of Gertrude and Sylvia. Of course, neither told their story, but author Kate Millet constructs it from the testimony of the numerous eye-witnesses to the crimes.
Rated by buyers -
I was fortunate enough to find the virtual bible of the Sylvia Likens case, John Dean's "The Indiana Torture Slaying", last year. However, if you are unable to locate it, this book is a suitable substitute. The only real difference is that Ms. Millett uses deliberate speculation in the form of prose, as well as the facts of the case. (much of which she got from Mr. Dean's original book) Still, I think that Kate Millett did quite well in retelling a most horrific crime. This is one of those special true crime books that you'll have to put down to make your head stop spinning. Not only do we get the sickening facts of the case, (including a few new things that I hadn't read in any other retelling) but also the mindset of Gertrude Baniszewski and Sylvia Likens during the four-month long torture period. The possible thoughts of both women (the evil Gertrude and the ever-passive Sylvia) are realistic enough to make even the most stoic person's stomach churn. Take caution when reading this one; it will stay with you for a long time.
Rated by buyers 
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I read this book years ago, and although I still have it, I haven't read it again, not because it wasn't worth reading but because Millet did her job too well. Her reconstruction of the events in that Indianapolis house is searing and unforgettable. No other book that I've read as an adult has given me the nightmares that this one did. (I don't have the stomach to read another book about Sylvia Likens, so can't compare Millet's book to Dean's.) I didn't see any strong feminist agenda in Millet's description of the torture, sexual abuse and eventual killing of a teenage girl by people who knew her (at least two of whom were women). Millet seems to be trying to make sense of the collective evil that allowed this to happen. She doesn't quite get there, but perhaps no one could. The questions that she asks need to be thought about, even if they can't be answered.
Rated by buyers -
I read The Basement many years ago in hardcover and passed it along to all my friends, who were all equally hooked by Millett's masterful style. She doesn't simply tell the story, she goes into the mind of victim and perpetrators, taking you with her for a haunting, unforgettable ride.
Rated by buyers -
Having lived just a mile south of Miss Likens' parents and 5 minutes away from the home where she was killed, I was stunned at the endeavor made to tell Sylvia's story. I lived it, read it in the news and still know members of the family.
While this is a perfect feminist endeavor at explaining things that went on in the house on New York Street, I feel most of Sylvia's story was used to propegate a soap box issue and it made some of the book a difficult read.
Tiny bits and pieces of fact (find foot notes and need to look them up elsewhere)are tossed in with commentary so often that the story is not well told beyond the opinions of the author.
Still, since John Dean's book is hard to find, I think anyone who wishes to explore one of Indiana's most horrible crimes against humanity, should read "Meditations..."
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