La Toya Jackson

I'm stunned after reading this book. I knew nothing of the Jackson family - except that there was a "bubblegum" pop group called the Jackson 5 whom I'd seen for about 30 seconds when my little neices pulled me toward their TV set way back then. I knew Michael was very talented, weird, interesting, had Neverland, scandalized all re the "kids in the bed" case -- for which I honestly didn't believe he was guilty--just naive & far too overpriviledged to connect with reality. That's about it for the entire sum of my Jacksonian knowledge. I'm not at all interested in pop culture. My kids owned the Thriller album in their early teens, it was good & fun to dance to. The dancing on his video was great, the later crotch grabbing was really crap & sick.

So with Michael's death (happening at the exact same time as the miscarriage of my first would-be grandchild) I sat frozen in my own grief in front of the endless coverage of Michael Jackson, and became interested in the background to all this, and the issues of justice that hopefully will some day be recognized. La Toya's book is my first experience of the family, but I do believe that more than 30% of it is true. It rings true as a crie de coeur. I'm numbed by the experience of going into their world. There are more ways of being impoverished than one's bank account. What a horrific existence. Lambs sacrificed on the alter of that abominable GREAT AMERICAN DREAM.
And to think that Michael's 3 children are to be raised by this horrible mother - who would be into much more senile denial than she was 20 years ago, at the time of the writing of this book. Go Debbie Rowe -- whoever you are. You can't do more harm to those kids than these monster grandparents would.… (meer)