Touched

by Scott Campbell and Scott Campbell

Book Overview

Robbie Young is an ordinary twelve-year-old boy about to drop a bombshell that will devastate his small town family. One day he rides his bike home after school, finds his mother in the kitchen making dinner, and speaks aloud the secret he's been keeping for a year, Jerry Houseman's been touching me. Robbie has been molested and the Young family will never be the same. From that moment on, the novel unfolds with inexorable power. The story is narrated...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553378228
• ISBN13: 9780553378221
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Interesting Approach to a Villian

I found this book to be one of the most thought provoking reads that I have come across in many years. This novel not only shows Campbell's amazing word choice and fluency, but it makes each and every reader honestly ask themeselves to reconsider child molestation. This book makes you feel sorry for Jerry, the molester, and it examines so many aspects of his life. I would strongly recommend this book to any that are looking for a book that is different from others and one that will make re-evaluate who and what is a child molester.

Fishhook in the guts

This book hit me like the legendary "ton of bricks". I'm an adult male who had an experience similar to Robbie's, at a similar age. I don't know how this author managed to capture the experience, but reading the book (I've gone through it twice so far) was, for me at least, a frightening and yet healing journey back in time. I emphatically disagree with the May 14, 2001 reviewer who stated: "I was more than a little disgusted by his seemingly fond memories of his molestation and how he mentioned it as an 'affair' he had when he was young..." Read Robbie's section again. What makes you think he has fond memories of the episode? Here's a young man who cannot emotionally connect to anyone around him - parents, coworkers, (ex)girlfriend. He's drifting through life, wanting to touch and be touched, but he can't. Robbie's wounds are subtle but finally devastating. He's still living in that bus station; he can't find the door out. Like Robbie, as a college-age adult I told a couple of my girlfriends about the experience; like him, I told it as a "wow, strange but cool, huh?" story. I now know that's just another way of disconnecting, pretending it didn't matter. Campbell got it just right. Absolutely authentic. Absolutely tragic. Reading Jerry's (the "boylover") point of view was especially profound as well. I understand better how perpetrators feel and think. He clearly couldn't help being attracted to young boys, but Campbell shows just as clearly that he consciously chose to act on that attraction. I felt sorry for Jerry, but ultimately, his fate was the direct result of his own deliberate choices. Young boys (yes, even before puberty) are curious about sex, just like fish are curious about the fishhook. Only adults can guard them against a lifetime of feeling that barb in their guts. The word "Touched" is used by the author to convey multiple meanings. Add another facet: This book touched me profoundly, in multiple ways. I recommend "Touched" to all who wish to understand, and particularly to survivors of "boylove" experiences.

apt title

In this era where many sexual abuse victims are coming forward to denounce the Catholic Church for protecting their molesters, this book is more timely than ever. While I'm not a fan of multiple narratives, this book uses the device effortlessly. Each of the four sections is narrated by the victim's mother, the victim himself, the man who molested the boy, and the wife of the child molester. Somehow you manage to feel sympathy for all. Not to sound sexist, but the male author gets the two female characters exactly right, something that not many authors accomplish. Each narrator has a distinct voice, something else that can be tricky, judging from how many books fall short of doing this.The child molester himself is presented as complexly as the other main characters, a man who tried to eradicate his urges through extensive therapy, but who ultimately failed. And the boy himself, whom we hear from as adult, has reactions that may surprise the reader.

A surprisingly good read

I bought this book more than a year ago and I finally got around to reading it. I found it to be thoroughly satisfying, unsettling, and very precise in its characterizations. Unlike other reviewers, I found the section told from Robbie's perspective (the boy that was molested) to be very plausible. Certainly, there are those who have been sexually abused and would consider Robbie's reaction to be anomalous, even "fiction." But we are all individuals and we all experience things differently.I'm a journalist that covers the courts, and I've witnessed many intergenerational criminal sex cases. I even roomed with a man who told me about when he was molested at age 12 by an older man, how at the time he was a willing participant. And I've witnessed cases that leave me with no doubt about the predatory visciousness of the perpetrator or the shameful harm inflicted on the child.This book is merely a snapshot of a very complex phenomenon, albeit a very good snapshot. Love it, hate it, think it puerile or simplistic, whatever your reaction may be to this book, it is exceptional in its ability to provoke thought.

An Honest, Compelling and Emotionally Charged Read

Touched is without a doubt the best book I have read this year. The honest manner in which Campbell relates a disconcerting story makes it a brave and compelling page turner. His ability to write the thoughts of a woman is brilliantly astute(like Lamb, but better). The plot had me totally engrossed from page one. The novel is insightfully psychological in a completly non-pretentious manner that will move and touch you. Told in four parts, from four perspectives, I believe that everyone will find something in this novel that they can identify with. Overall, a perfectly wonderful and highly recommended read.