(Untitled)

[nightgarden]

Lit nrrds and/or those up on their trauma lit: I have a query for y'all. Can anyone think of narratives (fiction, autobio, or thinly disguised autobio) by/about survivors of repeated sexual assault who were also consensually sexually active at the time that the abuse was taking place? I can only think of one (One on One, by Tabitha King)-and there

Comments

[una_sorella]

"the obsidian mirror" by louise m. wisechild. no wait, never mind. that's about child sexual abuse.
i'm not sure of other titles.

[readwrite]

Good question. Lolita almost qualifies--i.e. the titular character has a secret relationship with Quilty while she's with Humbert, but the latter is not sexual, and her thing with Humbert is...well, not exactly assault, not exactly not.

[nightgarden]

That's an interesting one--I need to reread Lolita anyway (I read it when I was sixteen, which is probably not the ideal age for it).

[readwrite]

It's made for rereading. I've read all Nabokov's novels, and even got to reread two of them for pay (the hardcovers were being shot for trade pb, and I did find a typo or two!). Lolita the best, though Pale Fire isn't far behind.

[nightgarden]

I love Pale Fire: I had to read it in grad school, and it followed directly on the heels (which I just typo'd "hells," though that's not inappropriate) of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, which I hate and everyone else in the world seems to think is the best thing since the invention of the alphabet. I was all, "Another wanky literary-game novel? You have to be kidding," and then read the entire thing in a day.

[amanda_mary]

Does the protagonist need to be in an otherwise conensual sexual relationship with the perpetrator of the assault? Oh, wait ... repeated sexual assault? Hmmm. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

[nightgarden]

No--I meant more along the lines of a consensual relationship with someone who is not the perpetrator. I think Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley fits, though it's been several years since I've read it (and I could really do without rereading that ending).

[amanda_mary]

Oh! I love Jim Grimsley's early work. (His first three books, up to My Drowning). I think Winter Birds is a nearly perfectly written novel. Now he seems to be into science fiction and fantasy, which generally isn't my cup of tea.

Would Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin fit? Again, that's more about the aftermath of childhood sexual abuse, although both of the main characters have consensual and non-consensual sexual encounters following their early-life experience.

[nightgarden]

I didn't even think of Mysterious Skin, but you're right: That might fit. That's another one I haven't read in several years: I did this hugely extensive project my senior year of college about narratives written by/about male survivors of sexual abuse/assault, so that's how I ran across Grimsley and Heim.

Did you see the film version of Mysterious Skin that came out a few months ago? It was well reviewed (and was playing a block from where I work!), and I am a schlub and didn't see it.