From: AAngel_at_aol.com <AAngel>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 09:38:11 EDT

I picked up a copy of Lynch's Inexcusable while at ALA last weekend. It was a powerful novel, one that doesn't make excuses for the main character's actions, but one that allows us to understand how something like this can happen. I gave the novel to my teenaged daughter as soon as I finished it. I talked

with an editor who said that Laurie Halse Anderson, who wrote SPEAK, was at first reluctant to read the book. She wrote a jacket blurb. I do hope this novel is talked about a bit more because I believe it's an important one. Ann Angel YA novelist journalism and writing teacher, Mount Mary College
 
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  I just read Chris Lynch???s new book (out this fall) called Inexcusable. It???s about a possible (probable) date rate from the ACCUSED???S point of view. I haven???t heard much buzz about this book yet, but when I mentioned it to various non-writers, they???ve said that there is no ???other side??? to such an issue and
 that such a book shouldn???t be written. (That kind of feeling always makes me
 nervous.) It???s a very well-done book, and it shows a character (the boy) who is in deep denial in all areas of his life (and therefore, not taking responsibility for what he does...and he messes up in lots other ways, too). Notice I said ???shows.??? It never preaches or feels didactic, a real feat for a book like this. I shouldn???t have to say it, but I will just to be clear: In no way am I condoning rape and Chris (if I may be so bold as to speak for him) isn
???t either. I heard him speak and he talked about how he wanted to explore this character, that ???no one wakes up in the morning and says, ???I want to be a monster.?????? Interestingly, too, Chris, a Printz-winner and popular with boy readers, has written scores of ???gritty??? YA novels and says he thinks the climate for publishing them actually is tightening a bit. (Although no one told him to ???tone down??? this book.)
Received on Wed 29 Jun 2005 08:38:11 AM CDT