Of innocent victims

Press, 10 August 1985, Page 20

Of innocent victims

Rainy Day Man. By Rita Garitano. ’//. W. Norton, 1985. 383 pp. $44.85. To feel oneself into, and write about, the confused mind of an 11-year-old is a worthwhile achievement. Amy is growing up in Arizona when her prematurely drab and discouraged mother is abandoned by her drunken, immature father. She has a major case of romantic attachment to her idealised father, complicated by her emerging vague sexual feelings. Her misery at the break-up, and his apparent casual separation from her to choose a potsmoking sexual gymnast partner, leaves her utterly forlorn and depressed. Most of the book deals with the effect of this separation and divorce on a girl at a crucial stage of her development. Up to this it is a solidly constructed, if not brilliantly written, piece of work until Amy is raped by a stranger to whom she has been helpful. In this area the author proceeds with a sure touch of r obvious knowledge of the consequences of rape on a young victim of this type. Amy’s shame and inability to talk about it and her feeling of being permanently soiled, somehow through her own fault, are extremely well conveyed and the march to the eventual tragedy is inevitable. The book could well be used as a discussion focus to look at the problems of counselling girls of Amy’s age at Rape Crisis Centres where victims like her frequently need longterm and skilled treatment of their psychological mutilations. It is by no means a pleasant book, although the ending is comparatively hopeful, but one that is very much of our time and moves beyond the more superficial discussion of the deprivation of one parent.—Ralf Unger.