KMAIR*

The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life"?

so runs the catchy opening to Heim's impressive first novel.

The speaker is Brian Lackey, now a troubled teenager, once an introverted kid growing up scared in the small town of Hutchinson, Kans. The reason for his memory lapse and his fear, as we and Brian learn during the course of the novel, turns out not to be the space aliens that he first suspects, but his molestation at the hands of his Little League coach.

The key to Brian's reclamation of those lost hours is homosexual hustler Neil McCormick?

the slugger on that Little League team and an accomplice to Brian's sexual abuse. Working its way over the course of a decade toward Brian and Neil's reunion, the narrative unfolds through chapters whose points of view alternate among Brian, Neil and a handful of their siblings and confidants.

Heim makes numerous freshman mistakes, including a relatively static narrative, prominent characters who outlive their usefulness and occasional lapses in the writing. He also creates scenes of genuine beauty, however, and handles his complicated characters and delicate subject matter with calm assurance.

Scott Heim's fiction and poetry have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including the upcoming Best American Gay Fiction. One of the picks in The New York Times Magazine's feature of "Thirty Artists Under Thirty to Watch," he holds degrees from the University of Kansas and Columbia University and lives in New York City. (édition épuisée ou indisponible de ce titre)

Récit bouleversant de deux quêtes douloureuses, de deux destins meurtris que rien ne semble pouvoir apaiser, Mysterious skin explore, sans complaisance, sensationnalisme ni faux-semblants, la question de la pédophilie, la complexité de l'éveil sexuel et le passage à l'âge adulte. Tracé d'une plume sobre, empreint de poésie et de délicatesse, un magnifique portrait de l'enfance, dans la violence de relations troubles et traumatisantes.

Né en 1966 à Hutchinson (Kansas), Scott Heim a publié un recueil de poésies, Saved from drowning en 1993, et deux romans, Mysterious skin en 1995 et In Awe en 1997. En 2005, Mysterious skin est adapté avec succès au cinéma par le réalisateur Gregg Araki.

La version DVD est disponible le 26 Octobre.

posted by OSTIAN@11:19AM