May Royal Oak Book Club

Event: Royal Oak Book Club

Date: May 15, 2016

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Location: Vinotecca, 417 South Main Street, Royal Oak, MI 48067

Cost: Everyone pays for themselves

Parking: Free on Sunday

Point of contact: Michele Marion michele.marion@swe.org

Other info:

Discussing The Turner House by Angela Fluornoy

Review of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town By Jon Krakauer

Review by Irina Sullivan

Victims of sexual assault, unlike victims of any other crime, face unprecedented hurdles in convincing the public and the jury that a perpetrator of a horrific violence against them deserves to be punished in any way. The reports of rapes on college campuses being on the rise dominate the national headlines and yet nearly every case is met with its share of skepticism from the immediate community as well as the public at large. Has the victim done enough to prevent the unspeakable from happening? Did she (and most often it is ‘she’) simply regret consenting after the fact? Did she dress and behave in such a way that invited the attack? And

on and on.

As with his other work, Jon Krakauer is thorough in his quest to challenge deep-seated assumptions, erroneous beliefs, prejudices, and unjust partiality toward the perpetrator in cases of rape. The reader is led through several accounts of rape cases reported in Missoula, Montana, a very typical college town home

to a well-loved state university with a revered and treasured football team. Walking in the shoes of each of the victims makes for a difficult, hair-raising, disheartening, and, most importantly, eyeopening read. One after another the victims muster all remaining strength and willpower to report the crime to campus authorities or the police. One after another their accounts doubted, unfairly challenged, and their true motivations questioned. And one after another they are betrayed by their friends, community, and the justice system in favor of their assailants, charismatic and accomplished young men whose futures are bright but for the unfortunate accusations laid against them. 

Krakauer is relentless in taking every case to its eventual and usually less than satisfying end. But as weary as the reader may be to relive the near hopelessness of taking a rape case to trial (and most cases will never even reach this stage), no one is as weary, disappointed, and confused as the victim herself. “Missoula” is a desperately necessary book if we are to ever bring the scales of justice into balance with respect to the victims of sexual assault.