The Tattooed Heart & My Name is Rose

by Theodora Keogh, Lidia Yuknavitch (Introduction)

The Tattooed Heart finds June Grey dreaming a summer alone with her grandmother in a large isolated house at Grey's Neck on the Long Island shore. Wooded hills surround the house and gives way to beach and sea. It is there she meets Ronny, a young man still firmly anchored in the fantasies of childhood. The young couple becomes cruelly caught in the complicated motives and desires of their elders as their erotic summer draws to a close.My Name Is Rose is an equal mix of journal entry and conventional narrative. Keogh's novel is an unwavering "examination of conscience" by a young wife whose marriage is breaking up after seven years. Original in perception, story, and a highly personal idiom, My Name is Rose is an enthralling work alive with the mystery and pulsating quality of life.

293 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2014

About the author

A granddaughter of president Theodore Roosevelt, Keogh wrote nine novels during the period of 1950 to 1962. Her novels tended to focus on characters with psychological conflicts and often dark sides to their personalities. In this regard, her themes are similar to those of novelist Patricia Highsmith.Theodora’s works explored such dark areas and themes as rape, incest, double lives, and a doctor’s psychological and emotional fascination with a child criminal. Her novels were also noteworthy for exploring gay and lesbian themes, which were daring topics for the era in which she was writing. Such themes brought Theodora a measure of notoriety in her day. Her novels were largely neglected after the 1960s but have recently been rediscovered and reissued. (summary ex Wikipedia)