The summer I went crazy happened forty years ago when I was just seventeen, but I've never forgotten.
It started with rape and ended with a promise. In between I fell in love, broke the law, and made an irrevocable decision.
The Summer I Went Crazy
by Laura Koerber
Genre: Coming of Age, YA Literary Fiction
The rule for guys like me was that we'd grow up to be like our parents. Our parents put a lot of work and money into making sure we did. I got it all: the expensive private school education, the summers in Europe, the family connections to a congressman and other influential people, an admission to Yale. I was fast tracked for success.
Instead, I became the witness to a rape.
And I fell in love, broke a bunch of laws, made an irrevocable decision, and made a lifetime promise.
And
now, forty years later, I am making a phone call.
The Year
I Went Crazy is a rewrite of an earlier novel, Coyote Summer. The
plot is much the same, but Coyote Summer is a magical realism novel
with a fantasy element, while The Summer I Went Crazy is straight
realistic literary fiction about coming of age.
**TRIGGER WARNING – While not containing the direct decription of rape, it does describe dealing with the aftermath of rape and includes drug and alcohol abuse.
Laura is an artist who lives on an island with her husband and her two dogs. She has always entertained herself by telling herself stories. As a child, she used to like going to bed because she could lie awake under the covers and run movies in her head. Later, as an adult, she enjoyed long distance driving for the opportunity to spend hours writing novels in her imagination.
Now Laura divides her retirement time between dog rescue, care for disabled people, political activism, and yes, she still tells herself stories while she is driving. Her first book, The Dog Thief and Other Stories, written under the pen name of Jill Kearney, was listed by Kirkus Review as one of the One Hundred Best Indy Books of 2015. She's also the author of I Once Was Lost, But Now I'm Found, Limbo, The Eclipse Dancer, and Wild Hare. She has a story contribution in the book Rescue Smiles, too.
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Hi everyone, Thank you for your interest in my novel. Though the story involves the aftermath of a rape, it is not graphic. The narrator of the story, a 17-year-old boy, is shocked by the rape and further shocked when he discovers that his friends and family are more concerned about protecting the abusers than the victim. This isn't uncommon, unfortunately. Confused to find himself at odds with friends and family, the MC decides to stay home alone while his parents and sister spend the summer on a trip to Europe. And that summer on his own turns out to be the turning point of his life.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
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