The Trauma Cleaner
Ratings20
Average rating3.7
"Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife. . . But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less. A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his living room. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose. Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead--and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together."--Jacket flap.
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I think this might have worked better as auto-biography. The subject matter is fascinating whether it's Sandra's personal story or incidents around her trauma cleaning business. Sadly, it seems that a focus wasn't chosen and therefore neither story was told. This could have been a great book.
Very interesting book authored by a woman who has obviously grown to love Sandra, the subject of this story. We learn the history of Sandra's multi-faceted life from young boy to husband and father to woman to prostitute to businesswoman to wife interspersed with her life in the business of cleaning up residences and such after a trauma has occurred. What stands out is the compassion she has for the victims and subjects because of the adversity she has faced. She is not a well woman but stays alive and vibrant by sheer grit. Not only does Sarah Krasnostein do a commendable job of showing us who Sandra is but her prose and ruminations on Sandra's life are an added pleasure.
A good read, but to be honest, I was looking for the story of running a trauma cleaning business, not necessarily the history of the woman who runs it. We spend at least every other chapter going through this woman's story, and while it's an incredible life...I don't really care that much. This is more of a biography than about the business she runs, and I feel it's a bit disingenuous to not say that.
