cover image Gregory of Zimbabwe: A True Story of Overcoming Child Abuse and the Scandal of Diplomatic Immunity

Gregory of Zimbabwe: A True Story of Overcoming Child Abuse and the Scandal of Diplomatic Immunity

Leonard T. Gries. Fithian Press, $10.95 (173pp) ISBN 978-1-56474-054-0

Gries offers an intriguing, instructive study of a child abuse case with international implications that briefly entered the headlines in 1987 and 1988. Nine-year-old Gregory Tanaka (a pseudonym), son of a Zimbabwean diplomat in New York City, was regularly beaten by his disciplinarian father, and his teacher noticed. City officials put Gregory in local foster care, and Zimbabwean officials protested. The author, director of Mental Health Services at St. Christopher-Ottilie Services for Children and Families, was called in to evaluate Gregory. In detailed passages, Gries describes his tactics with Gregory; when told abruptly that he'd have to return to Zimbabwe, Gregory ``climbed into a small transfer file . . . rolled his eyes and babbled and moaned, grasping his head in his hands.'' Finally, after a lengthy battle between city officials and the State Department, Gregory was sent to a foster home in Zimbabwe. The author, unfortunately, can report only sketchily on Gregory's current status. Since the book is apparently from the author's recollections and notes, it lacks sources; citations of press coverage of the case would have been useful. (Sept.)