My Sunshine Away, M O Walsh, G P Putnam's Sons, 2015, 303 pp
Sometimes when I meet a new person who finds out that I love to read, I am given a book or books by that person. Then I feel somewhat obligated to read the book. In that way this novel came to me. I did not know anything about it except for the cover flap summary.
This debut novel was not bad, neither was it great. Set in the summer of 1989 in a white privileged neighborhood of Baton Rouge, a 15-year-old girl is raped. Lindy Simpson is the belle of the neighborhood and a boy across the street (who narrates the story) has a hopeless crush on her.
This boy, along with three other males in the area, becomes a suspect. As usual in these cases, the police fail to identify or charge any culprit. For about 300 pages, I lived inside this boy's head, gradually learning about his life, Lindy's life and his obsession with her.
He was not the rapist (not a spoiler, you know this soon enough) but he feels guilty for reasons his teenage mind does not understand though he figures it has something to do with how he had lusted after this beautiful, free-spirited track star of a female since he was in middle school. He knows little about romantic love, he knows plenty about his own and other boys' sexual desires, he has some truly messed up male friends. Eventually he becomes a sort of friend of Lindy's, but she of course has changed, is depressed and becomes pretty weird herself.
I was uncomfortable with this boy's actions and attitudes. What he feels toward Lindy is almost completely about him. I was lucky in high school. I had a steady boyfriend for three years and we loved each other, or at least we thought we did. It is true that in the end I felt he didn't really get me and we broke up after graduating, but it was never weird.
So I suppose, well actually I know, there are boys who mostly just want sex and will do anything to get it. Later in the book, the narrator figures himself out, grows up, marries another woman and is happy.
Since M O Walsh is male and grew up in Baton Rouge, I assume he knew what he wrote about, but it seemed somehow a little off to me. Something was missing, something did not quite add up. I think he was trying to discover the fine line between lust and love, but I was not convinced that he pulled it off.
Super review. Some High School kids are self absorbed. There are different kinds of self absorption though and the male protagonist here does not sound particularly interesting.. I also think that some kids have horrifying attitudes and say horrifying things but so grow out of these things.
ReplyDeleteYou know Brian, that was part of my trouble with the book. I was not as interested in the protagonist's problems as he was. He did grow out of his issues but I could not quite completely believe that either.
DeleteI read this one a while ago (when it was first released). I recall liking it though. Sorry it didn't work better for you.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am glad it worked better for you!
DeleteIt sounds like one thing that was missing was any perspective from the rape victim. Perhaps that was intentional. The author was only interested in exploring the male point of view, something he could easily relate to. I don't know of and have never read M.O. Walsh so perhaps I am misunderstanding him.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting idea, Dorothy. In fact, when they became friends she tried to give her perspective but he was not listening well. I was distinctly in the minority in not loving the book but there you have it.
DeleteThis sounds like my High school experience all over again, stupid boys who only want sex. Though none of my friends or myself were raped (thank goodness), so I'll skip this one. I've had enough self absorbed horny teenage boys to last me seven lifetimes lol
ReplyDeleteI get it!
DeleteI always find it interesting when the story centers on a rape or sexual assault, but the story itself is told from the perspective of a male. This is not to say that men can not be rape victims, they can be, and are. But in THIS specific case, it does not sound like you are ever given the perspective of the victim, and are never inside her head. I am not terribly interested in how a male might view the situation in this book, so I will pass!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. In this case I was interested in how disconnected he was from his own viewpoint supposedly due to his teenage lust. Then he felt he grew out of it and had become a better person by facing his part in the thing. But didn't feel he had any more responsibility to Lindy and that made me angry.
DeleteYeah you explain this one well -- I read this one -- and it was a bit creepy - his obsession. I didn't really relate to it / i tried to understand this kid's coming of age - but it was different. I didn't hate it or love it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just chalked it up to a certain inability to understand that some males have.
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