Stylish and Comfortable Dresses for Girls - Perfect for School, Parties, and Everyday Wear
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Product Description
In this searing and surprising memoir, Samantha Geimer, "the girl" at the center of the infamous Roman Polanski sexual assault case, breaks a virtual thirty-five-year silence to tell her story and reflect on the events of that day and their lifelong repercussions. March 1977, Southern California. Roman Polanski drives a rented Mercedes along Mulholland Drive to Jack Nicholson's house. Sitting next to him is an aspiring actress, Samantha Geimer, recently arrived from York, Pennsylvania. She is thirteen years old. The undisputed facts of what happened in the following hours appear in the court record: Polanski spent hours taking pictures of Samantha-on a deck overlooking the Hollywood Hills, on a kitchen counter, topless in a Jacuzzi. Wine and Quaaludes were consumed, balance and innocence were lost, and a young girl's life was altered forever-eternally cast as a background player in her own story. For months on end, the Polanski case dominated the media in the US and abroad. But even with the extensive coverage, much about that day-and the girl at the center of it all-remains a mystery. Just about everyone had an opinion about the renowned director and the girl he was accused of drugging and raping. Who was the predator? Who was the prey? Was the girl an innocent victim or a cunning Lolita artfully directed by her ambitious stage mother? How could the criminal justice system have failed all the parties concerned in such a spectacular fashion? Once Polanski fled the country, what became of Samantha, the young girl forever associated with one of Hollywood's most notorious episodes? Samantha, as much as Polanski, has been a fugitive since the events of that night more than thirty years ago. Taking us far beyond the headlines, The Girl reveals a thirteen-year-old who was simultaneously wise beyond her years and yet terribly vulnerable. By telling her story in full for the first time, Samantha reclaims her identity, and indelibly proves that it is possible to move forward fr
Customer Reviews
Samantha Geimer comes off as intelligent, well-spoken and, most of all, gracious, which makes The Girl more than a typical victim's account of a crime that could have put her life off the rails completely. Her refusal to succumb to what would be an understandable bitterness and desire to see Polanski's life ruined as well is remarkable. All the more remarkable considering she was 13, 30 years younger than Polanski, when he raped her. Even at that age, she would show more responsibility and impulse control than the jet-set director. She doesn't take the high road because of Polanski's influence or his standing as an artist; she does it because she doesn't want to think of herself as a victim. And she never wanted to be a very public victim who would be exposed to media scrutiny.That's not to say the rape didn't devastate her; she was vilified by Polanski's defense team and painted as a scheming Lolita who invited his attention, and by his Old World view, somehow invited the attack. And she was exposed to the media anyway, so she never got to keep the hard-fought peace and privacy she needed to heal. Geimer wrote this book to set the record straight long after her identity was revealed. I don't believe she was cashing in, or exploiting Polanski's celebrity, because everything she's done up until now has been done to avoid the public eye. She is a tough, smart woman who simply refuses to give her attacker the power to ruin her life. And she knows she has nothing to feel guilty about or ashamed of.I read The Girl after seeing Marina Zenovich's recent documentary (a thought-provoking film) on the case and the attempt by the U.S. government to extradite Polanski and force him to stand trial for the rape more than thirty years after the fact. Geimer didn't support or condone this extradition attempt; the original judge in the case had agreed on a plea bargain for psychiatric evaluation and time served for Polanski, then reneged on the deal because he feared public backlash for being too lenient to a child rapist. Geimer and her family and legal team had embraced and, in fact, initiated, the original deal so they would not have to go through the ordeal of a trial. It's a complex case, regardless of whether you believe Polanski got off too lightly for a pretty heinous act, and regardless of whether he showed enough contrition after the fact. Geimer didn't want a seventy-something year-old man to possibly go to jail for the rest of his life when she herself had moved on. This brought criticism of HER by the talking heads of the American media (like Nancy Grace) who thought she wasn't being a good enough victim. She didn't supply the correct preconceived sound bites that would have made the news stories mesh nicely with their opinions of the case.I can go on and on, but I should let Ms. Geimer tell her remarkable story herself. I wholly recommend The Girl and have nothing but admiration for the woman she became. I didn't exactly come away from this story feeling as if all the loose ends of justice have been tied together, but I came away happy for Geimer for whatever happiness and self-knowledge she has achieved in a very difficult life.
