The victims of domestic abuse are overwhelmingly women, and women tend to experience more severe forms of violence than anyone else. The Yellow House by Paulette Rivait clearly reflects that reality. She reminds us that although this is her story, it might well be one that is repeated time and time again in the lives of young girls and women everywhere. Hers is set in southwestern Ontario. It begins in her childhood. It begins with her father who is raising his family in a "yellow house" in an ordinary neighbourhood. The people around him see him every day as a good natured fellow. They see him cutting the grass, firing up the barbecue, washing his car, and they see him greet the mailman. But behind the doors of his house another man emerges in the silence and darkness. Two young daughters become his victims, and there is no one to stop the abuse. It continues in their lives until they depart and move out and get married and have their own families. But the sexual abuse turns to the physical violence of husbands who find nothing but fault in these two daughters. The narrative work of Paulette Rivait soars with grace as she tells us how she grapples with and finds a way out of this terrible and tragic life. For her there is hope, optimism, a future that is far better than decades of violence.

Paulette Rivait is a retired Windsor social worker who turned to writing about sexual and physical abuse that occurred to her both as a child and a wife.

Paulette Rivait's profile page