While the Locust Slept

Peter Razor

Oct 2009 · Minnesota Historical Society Press

About this ebook

In stark, haunting prose, first-time author Peter Razor recalls his early years as a ward of the State of Minnesota. Disclosing his story through flashbacks and relying on research from his own case files, Razor pieces together the shattered fragments of his boyhood into a memoir that reads as compellingly as a novel. Abandoned as an infant at the State Public School in Owatonna, Minnesota, Peter Razor is raised by abusive workers who thought of him as nothing more than 'a dirty Injun.' Cut off from his family and his heritage, he turns inward, forced to learn about the world on his own. After failed attempts to run away from the orphanage, he is indentured by the state to an abusive, reclusive farm family. Beaten, poorly fed, clothed in rags, and worked like slave labor, he struggles to attend high school and begins to dream of another life. Razor's stark and often chilling story, devoid of self-pity, recalls with haunting clarity the years he, like the locust, patiently waited to awaken and emerge.

Ratings and reviews

Unbelievable how cruel some human beings can be. I almost didn't want to believe the inhumane Circumstance's. I applaud you for your courage.

One of the best books ever. I liked at it because my teacher was making us read it but now I can't put it down.