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OTHER A & E STORIES - Jennifer Lopez pushes the limit in Enough - Jackass kicks you in the balls and leaves you urting for more - Brian thinks you should... - A marriage of sounds gives Hot Hot Heat a truly original album - Pretentions (submissions from SCC students) A tale of Argentinian war prisoners Michael Carter Ebbtide Reporter Alicia Partnoy's book "The Little School: Tales of Disappearances and Survival" is a heart-breaking account of the day-to-day struggle of political prisoners in a post-Peron Argentina. This book whirls its readers back to the late 1970s after the death of legendary Argentinean leader, Juan Domingo Peron. Though Argentina was never politically stable, the momentary calmness of the region was shattered when a military coup ousted Peron's successor and wife, and assumed control of the country. This lead to a brutal and oppressive era of military rule. Although the book fails to establish an adequate history of the political turmoil in Argentina, it delivers a vivid account of what happened to one of the country's 30,000 "disappeared," a term used to describe an individual who had been kidnapped or killed by the military junta. On January 12, 1977, Partnoy was detained by military personnel and taken to a building called the Little School. The Little School was only a euphemism for prison camp. This camp is where the body of the book is focused. Alicia Partnoy after speaking to students at Davidson College. Photo courtesy www.davidson.edu Partnoy delivers her chapters in a chronology of excerpts from the events she experienced during her detention. The events are often simple and represent a desperate distraction from the terror of the brutal imprisonment, where she was "forced to remain silent and prone, often immobile or face down for many hours, blindfolded with tightly bound wrist." One excellent example is illustrated through a pair of slippers issued to Partnoy which display a plastic daisy on one toe. "The flower, a huge plastic daisy, looked up at them from the floor. The other slipper without flower, was more like them. But that one-flowered slipper amid the dirt and fear, the screams and torture, that flower so plastic, so unbelievable, so ridiculous, was like a strange prop, almost obscene, absurd, a joke. If we were caught laughing (at it), it was going to be very hard to explain what was so funny. Then blows would come, with or without explanation." Other segments of the book contain the author's cynicism. "I've discovered the cure for constipation," she writes. "Just pretend that [the shift supervisor's] face is inside the latrine and shitting becomes a pleasure." Partnoy however, never lets the desperation and brutality out of perspective, constantly bringing the reader back to the gravity of her terrible situation. Guns are forced into her mouth, the prisoners are tortured, and when they don't ask guards to tighten loose blindfolds they are beaten. The book does encounter some problems when it abruptly switches perspective from third person to first, leading to some awkward moments. Although the writing is a bit novice, it still makes for a compelling, tragic read. The reader is brought into unimaginable circumstances with simple vivid descriptions that seem to state an authentic, honest testimony of one individual's adversity. It comes from behind a veil rarely seen in the public eye of a Western audience; adversity where methods for survival consist of basic pleasures and minute victories behind the back of brutal guards and oppressive politics. "The Little School" delivers a unique non-fiction flavor in the shadowy world of an authoritarian secret. © 2002 Shoreline Community College™