I'm back with another book review, this time featuring my latest read in Spanish. I don't usually read biographies, actually I think I'd only read *another* one until this.
Como mucha gente, escuché el nombre de Natascha Kampusch por primera vez a finales de agosto de 2006, cuando todos los telediarios y prensa escrita se hacían eco de la autoliberación de esta joven austríaca que había pasado prácticamente ocho años de su vida encerrada en un zulo tras su secuestro.
Like most people, I first heard the name Natascha Kampusch late in August 2006, when every single TV station and written press told the story of how she managed to escape after spending the last eight years of her life almost permanently kept in a secret cellar following her kidnapping.
Fuente/ Source: Casadellibro.
Pocos días después concedía su primera entrevista a la cadena austríaca ORF *parte 1 / parte 2 / parte 3*, en la que pudimos observar a una joven relativamente serena y muy inteligente relatando su secuestro a manos de Wolfgang Priklopil, un antiguo trabajador de la multinacional Siemens. Era el 2 de marzo de 1998 y Natascha, de 10 años, iba sola al colegio por primera vez, cuando fue introducida por la fuerza en una furgoneta blanca, que la llevaría hasta una casa de Strasshof, a las afueras de Viena. Allí pasaría los siguientes ocho años con la única compañía de su secuestrador.
A few days later she gave her first interview to the Austrian TV channel ORF *Spiegel article*, where we could finally meet a relatively calm and very smart teenager, recounting her kidnapping eight years earlier by Wolfgang Priklopil, a former employee of Siemens. On March 2nd, 1998 Natascha was walking alone to school for the first time, when she was abducted and taken to the back of a white van that would take her to his home in Strasshof, near Vienna. She would spend the next eight years there with the only company of her abductor.
Fuente/Source: Borders - Amazon
Al igual que aquella entrevista, en su libro '3096 días' -los días que duró su cautiverio- Natascha vuelve a demostrar su inteligencia tejiendo con maestría un relato en el que analiza con precisión quirúrgica tanto su propia infancia como la hija pequeña tardía de una pareja en crisis como su secuestro, la personalidad de su captor, los errores de la investigación, sus reacciones y las reacciones de la gente y los medios tras su liberación.
Like on that interview, in her book '3096 days' -the days her abduction spanned- Natascha proves what a smart young lady she is, wisely recounting her story and disecting with surgical accuracy different events and facts, such as her own childhood as the late smallest child of a doomed couple, her abductor's personality, the flaws in the investigation of her case, her reactions and the reactions of people and the media after she ran away.
Natascha no sólo nos habla de las muchas humillaciones y abusos que sufrió a manos de su carcelero, que pasó de comprarle dulces al principio de su encierro a racionarle la comida casi provocándole la muerte, que le proporcionaba libros para educarse al tiempo que le lavaba el cerebro para convertirla en su esclava de por vida. La joven se niega a verse a sí misma como una víctima y rechaza el encasillamiento en la etiqueta de 'síndrome de Estocolmo'.
Pienso que resulta demasiado fácil adjudicar las conclusiones a las que ha llegado tras su calvario a esa mera definición médica. Quizá si Natascha se hubiera mostrado ante los medios como una jovencita de escasa cultura a raíz de su cautiverio, no se la habría cuestionado tanto. Se llegó a decir que se lo había inventado, que ocultaba datos sobre posibles cómplices y se la desacreditó por su sorprendente capacidad de empatizar con su secuestrador y torturador, que era a la vez su único contacto con el mundo exterior y quien por desgracia tenía la llave de su vida o su muerte.
Natascha does not only provide a diary of the humiliation and abuse she suffered. Her kidnapper went from getting her sweets at the beginning of her ordeal to literally starving her almost to death. At the same time, he fed her mind by bringing her books to educate herself while in the cellar. On the other hand, he also brainwashed her in order to make of her a lifelong slave to him. She refuses to regard herself as a victim and doesn't like to be branded as suffering from 'Stockholm syndrome'.
It is perhaps too easy to fall into that, complex as they are the conclusions she's reached after her ordeal. Had Natascha appeared before the media as an illiterate naïve teenager following her abduction, she might not have been questioned as she has. Accusations were flung at her, claiming she was making the entire ordeal up, that she was concealing details about potential accesories to the kidnapping and was discredited for her unexpected ability to empathize with her captor and abuser, who was at the same time her only connection with the outside world and the person who unfortunately had her life or death in his hands.
A día de hoy, Natascha lucha por recobrar la normalidad y colabora con varias causas benéficas, principalmente para combatir el maltrato a la mujer, pero no reniega de la fama, ya que ha llegado incluso a presentar su propio programa de televisión.
As of today, Natascha is still fighting to lead a normal life and helps different charities, mainly fighting abuse against women but does not turn her back against fame, having even hosted her own television show.
Oo Im looking at this atm....I may have to buy it after this review!
ResponderEliminarthanks =D