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Excavation
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Bonne Kramer
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
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Excavation
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Summary
Wendy C. Ortiz was an only child and a bookish, insecure girl living with alcoholic parents in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her relationship with a charming and deeply flawed private school teacher 15 years her senior appeared to give her the kind of power teenagers wish for, regardless of consequences. Her teacher - now a registered sex offender - continually encouraged her passion for writing while making her promise she was not leaving any written record about their dangerous sexual relationship. This conflicted relationship with her teacher may have been just five years long, but would imprint itself on her and her later relationships, queer and straight, for the rest of her life.
In Excavation: A Memoir, the black and white of the standard victim/perpetrator stereotype gives way to unsettling grays. The present-day narrator reflects on the girl she once was, as well as the teacher and parent she has become. It's a beautifully written and powerful story of a woman reclaiming her whole heart.
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What listeners say about Excavation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Maja Andersen
- 13-02-23
Felt unfinished.
Maybe it’s my need for closure and healing whilst still knowing that this rarely happens to survivors but a part of me felt like the journey was left unfinished. I wish book Wendy got therapy or healing from a grown up figure. Yet I know that’s not always the case when going through these things.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amy Rodgers
- 13-08-23
Wasn't a huge fan...
Although this book was short, I felt as though it lacked the substance a subject as harrowing as this requires. It felt unfinished and I would have preferred to read about how the author grew with her trauma. Not everyone heals, but it would have been nice to see how she dealt with the aftermath of her abuse rather than just ending the book with her last encounter with Mr. Ivers. I feel like that would have accomplished more than what the book actually covered, which seemed to be the same scenarios back to back.
Read this alongside My Dark Vanessa, and I fail to see the supposed similarities in the two books. Yes they cover the same subject matter, but that's where the similarities end. Any parallels found reflect more on the nature of grooming, the formula most groomers follow, and the naivety of young people, rather than the storytelling.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ML79
- 12-03-20
As important as reviews suggest
I listened to this alongside My Dark Vanessa as I felt as an ally and survivor in the wake of controversy it was important to read Excavation not just the book I had heard of through promotion.
However, I think it important to justify I find significant differences in them and did not feel I was listening to the same book twice or the same protagonist twice. There are similarities and I understand this was part of the background reading for the other book - and why not? It’s important . While my dark Vanessa had disturbing tones of familiarity to my own abuse ( not by a teacher) excavation did not and I think the similarities exist and are noted by survivors because abuse does have many relatable circumstances across types of abuse anyway.
Very importantly this reads as a memoir. A very different genre. I would very much like to listen to Ortiz’s body of work but can’t see it as yet on Audible.
I really did not enjoy the narration . Though it was clear in voice it was rushed. Reducing speed to 75 x made the narrator sound stoned - which may have been appropriate for parts of the story but grated.
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2 people found this helpful