A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: TOO MUCH LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH BY ROSENNA BAKARI

With the subject of early sexual abuse such a prevalent subject on social media, one might be forgiven for accepting supposedly self-confessing memes to be revelatory of a beginning psychological cleansing. Dr. Rosenna Bakari, in her exquisitely written, devastatingly candid, and ruthlessly self-exposing memoir, Too Much Love is Not Enough – truly a case study of long-lasting psychological/emotional damage – puts the shame to such shallow thinking. This book is so intelligent and insightful, so forthright and uncompromising, so devoid of false rationalization or self-pity, one wonders that the author is talking about herself. But this is not an ordinary victim of incest and subsequent abuse. Dr. Bakari possesses an intellect fully equal to her damaged feelings, and a persistence to endure and to succeed that got her to Cornell University, after all.

Dr. Rosenna Bakari accomplishes something in Too Much Love is Not Enough that is quite remarkable: somehow, she fully inhabits the central character (herself) while examining this broken individual (herself) with the clinical and academic precision and objectivity intrinsic to her highly demanding, psychological profession. What may fascinate the reader most is Dr. Bakari’s focus on the greater damage done by continued silence than the initial invasive betrayal itself. For those victims of similar abuse, this must be a terrifying admonition. For those on the outside of such abuse, this is an enlightening and provocative consideration, making us cringe and wonder: how many such souls walk among us? Either way, the courage demonstrated within this profoundly clarifying book is astounding. Both the writing and the willingness to share such terrible secrets provides all the credibility one needs to know why so many shallow memes are surfacing. Tip of the iceberg, is all.