Too Much Love Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Silence of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Rosenna Bakari is a memoir that looks at the silent suffering of a woman who experienced sexual abuse and trauma in her childhood, and who was coerced into silence by a culture that protects aggressors instead of victims. She writes: “I had kept the rape a secret since age seven, and even kept it a secret from myself. To this day, I have no clear memory of my brother violating me.” It’s an experience that is shared by many women who are violated in their childhood — they are either forced into silence or are driven by shame to remain silent to a point that they even deny it ever happened.
In this memoir, the author courageously tells her story, exploring the unhealthy dynamics in her family. Readers understand how what happens in our childhood can determine the quality of our psychological and emotional health as we grow into more mature adults. Readers will understand the silent tears of the protagonist, encounter her in moments of frailty, and learn how coping mechanisms, which include silence, can lead to more suffering. This is a heartbreaking yet inspiring story, one that encourages abused women not to surrender to silence and allow the pain to eat them from within, but to seize the courage to face the evil by naming it and speaking about it.
This is a story about healing from someone who, for many years, covered her pain in other passions. Readers will understand that at some point one has to have the courage to open the wound, for it is only then it will cease to fester and can start to heal. Rosenna Bakari brings into her writing her expertise in psychology and helps readers understand the different wrong ways they have been taught to deal with childhood sexual abuse. The narrative in Too Much Love Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Silence of Childhood Sexual Abuse is insightful and emotional, driven and focused, and the book offers powerful lessons to readers.