FICTION

Etched on Me

by Jenn Crowell
Washington Square: Atria. Feb. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781476739069. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9781476739076. F
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Although Lesley Holloway has made it through college and is supporting herself in London, Children's Services takes her newborn daughter away from her. Lesley's history of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, as well as her self-cutting and long stays at psychiatric facilities, seem to doom her. Yet she has many friends and consultants in her court, most especially a former teacher and her family, with whom Lesley lived during college. Through therapy, including concepts of Zen and collage and playing the guitar, teenage Lesley moved forward, experiencing low points such as the exposure of a sexual dalliance with her hospital roommate and various rebound episodes of self-cutting. Will she or won't she be allowed to keep her daughter?
VERDICT Readers will cheer for Lesley's progress in this against-all-odds, sometimes grueling, suspenseful, and character-rich tale of individuation. Bringing to mind Susanna Kaysen's memoir Girl, Interrupted or Jeffrey Eugenides's novel The Virgin Suicides, Crowell's (Necessary Madness; Letting the Body Lead) novel darkly fascinates.
Reviewed by Keddy Ann Outlaw, Houston , Nov 15, 2013
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