Touched

by Scott Campbell

Robbie Young is an ordinary twelve-year-old boy about to drop a bombshell that will devastate his small town family. One day he rides his bike home after school, finds his mother in the kitchen making dinner, and speaks aloud the secret he's been keeping for a year, "Jerry Houseman's been touching me." Robbie has been molested and the Young family will never be the same. From that moment on, the novel unfolds with inexorable power. The story is narrated in four parts: first by Robbie's mother, then by Jerry Houseman himself, then by Houseman's wife Linda, and concluded by Robbie himself fifteen years later, when he has returned to town for a high school reunion. Each voice is remarkably persuasive and utterly convincing, and the result is a novel that is impossible to put down as it is impossible to forget.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

313 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Scott Campbell (born March 24, 1945 in Michigan) is an American writer. He lives in Boston and works as Director of Communications in the School of Architecture and Planning. Campbell holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Vermont College.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_C...

Reviews

[Marijana☕✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

Knjiga sa razmene koja je ispala sasvim solidna. Dopada mi se stil, pitko je napisano i brzo se čita, mada uz obavezne pauze zbog mučne tematike. Nisam stručnjak, ali mi deluje da je Campbell dobro razradio psihologiju likova, pogotovo što je dao sebi zahtevan zadatak da nam približi sve iz četiri perspektive. Nije ostavio mesta da neki postupci deluju neopravdano, izneo je kompleksnu priču, potvrdio je da ništa nije samo crno ili belo i dao dosta toga za razmišljanje. Možda je kraj mogao još malo da se razvuče ili da bar dobijemo više informacija o nekim likovima.

[Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

A boy comes home one night and tells his mother the neighbor has been molesting him.

That starts an incredibly open and deep examination of how the thing happened. It is told from 4 separate points of view. The boy as an adult, his mother, the molester, and the molester's wife. Unique. Fascinating.

[Daniel Sheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book of 4 parts. Literally. Told in first person from 4 different perspectives. Part 1 was told from the perspective of the mother of the boy who was molested. Part 2 was from the perspective of the perpetrator. Part 3 was from the perpetrators wife, and these first 3 parts were just fine. The voices were distinct, and it was obviously well researched, but for me, the prose fell a little flat and to be honest, I felt myself getting bored.
However, I'm so glad I held on, because Part 4 was told from the perspective of the victim, the kid himself, 15 years later, looking back on everything that had happened. And this part was where the book came alive. Highly insightful, beautifully nuanced, and spectacularly well written, this stuck me as an incredibly brave thing to write. If only the entire book had been written with this sort of passion. This is a difficult one to recommend, because you have to slog through the first two thirds in order to get to the last section, but if you make it through, I promise you will be rewarded with something genuinely unique and incredibly powerful.

[Adam Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect going in to this book. Was it a thriller, a drama, was the guy guilty, didn't know. Turns out the book is a very straight-forward and believable portrait of a man and boy relationship.
What I liked about the book is that it was well-rounded, all the sides were presented and the four sides were presented unslanted. Everyone in the story did something wrong, and there was no attempt to hide that, but at the same time it wasn't glorified. People do things that are wrong all the time.
The interesting thing for me was the grey area of the whole situation. I feel that pedophilia has become the witch hunt of our times, and the witch hunt is doing more harm than good. I was dating a guy who lived in a different country from his daughter and missed her very much. He inquired about a job at a day care and was told no single man was ever going to get that job, and it’s a shame. These kids are missing out on something and so is he. There seems to be an attitude of men all being sex-fiends and women having to clutch them to their bosom for protection 24/7 and that is not good.
The boy in this story was 12, still a child, but also capable of having sexual feelings, like most kids do. I know I did. So is this relationship with the man the worst thing that could happen? More to the point, is it worse than the aftermath of the trial and the whole town knowing?
At the same time, there were holes in the perpetrators judgment you could drive a truck through. How could you “love” someone only at a certain age? What happens when they get older? And how do you “love” someone who isn’t fully developed, who is so pliable that you can mold them with the slightest contact? And there is a responsibility with that power.
I’m reminded of The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault and the boy-love practiced in ancient Greece. It’s something that’s been around for at least thousands of years, and I don’t know that moral outrage is the key to stopping it. There seems to be a reluctance with this topic to talk about actualities instead of ideals.
This all being said, I felt the book was slow in parts. I felt the plot other than the touching was nonexistent, that the part from the wife’s perspective was the weakest and went on too long. I didn’t care about her time in the moonlight with the perpetrator. The guys three daughters were so stiff they could have been called cardboard one, two and three. Also I read the author on Amazon say this was made into a play, I don’t know who the audience for that would be. I don’t know who the audience for this book would be really, there’s such a moral outcry against this topic that any slightly impartial viewpoint would be crucified.
Good enough book, didn’t change my life.

[a. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess seeing this unfold from several perspectives may have been interesting for some, but I didn't appreciate it. Three of the characters were horrible people and one had a horrible thing happen to him shaping the rest of his life. The worst character in this book is Jerry Houseman, but his wife is a close second and at times in my mind, she was a far worse human being. Because she knew what he was capable of and did nothing at all to stop it. And worse yet, she didn't stop his friendship with this young boy... She allowed it to continue. Some might say... "well what should she have done? He was her husband." and my answer to that is... Whatever it took to protect that child. Not every, not even near every, friendship between a man and a boy is this kind of relationship. I would wager a very, very small percentage is, but his wife knew that this type of relationship had occurred before.

The relationship between the molested and molester is complex. Robbie's viewpoint in the book illustrates that deftly. He was a child and had no idea the gravity of what was being done to him, what he was doing.

The mother in this book is a terrible character. I disliked her from the first words her character relayed in the book.

This is a touchy subject (I wrote that intending no pun or joking, because this is a subject that outrages people with just the slightest mention). So partially I'm sure that is why I was so angry with this book.

Other aspects on which to rate a book:
Storytelling... Poor.
Writing style... Mediocre.
Show me don't tell me... Abysmal.
Characters believability... Well done.

[Micha Meinderts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premisse, but the way it was used left much to be desired. Many chapters started with unrelated ponderings of the respective narrators, stuff I was not interested in and it didn't even feel it was building up to something. Those long boring introductions were probably supposed to flesh out a character and all that, but it only bothered me and I kept thinking "get on with the story".

Style wasn't anything remarkable. It wasn't bad and it wasn't outstanding. Some observations were neat and redeemed the author a little, but most were bland and uninteresting. Other than the daring subject, it was nothing special.

[Emmie Must · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's important to tell stories like this one because this is something that happens and if we want to prevent this we need to listen and try to figure It out how to stop It.

The author seemed to made his work because he told the story from several perspectives even when it was uncomftarble.

The Mom and Dad weren't doing His Job and his son suffered from that, the cheating wife excusing herself and neglecting her son while she was fucking another cheating loser.

The Dad just trying to avoid everything.

The wife for not putting a stop to that behavior or accept that she didn't need her Daddy's approval anymore and needed to be honest with her family.

The pedophile cause he knew that what he was doing was wrong cheating and abusing a minor who gets confused with lust and the attention that his parents didn't give it to him.

The victim feeling responsible like and adult when everybody else in his life failed him. Of course you are going to enjoy the sexual estimulations he was a healthy human being and if you are being touched you are going to feel something, it's a natural reaction, there wasn't anything wrong with him. But sex is not only about pleasure and in the society we live this is not ok precisely because of what this little boy experience through the rest of his life.

I appreciatte the honesty of this book and I liked the writing but I feel mad about everybody that fail this little boy knowin that this happens all the time and we just don't want to talk about it or we just want to call each other names. Just like I did here, that's why we need to educate ourselves and find a way to be more open to discussions so that we can come up with solutions.

[Dean McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodreads has named Scott Campbell's novel TOUCHED its Book of the Month. This is a difficult book to read as well as write about. Robbie Young is a young 12-year-old boy. Jerry Houseman is a husband, father of three girls, and the neighborhood mailman. He befriends Robbie and they become close friends, enjoying each other's company in lots of activities. One day Robbie comes home, sits down at the kitchen table where his mother is preparing supper, and announces, "Jerry Houseman's been touching me." It is a tragic, disturbing tale and the reader's worst imaginings are confirmed in the book in four sections. Each section is narrated by a different character: Robbie's mother, Houseman, Houseman's wife, and finally Robbie, who has come home fifteen years later to attend a high school reunion. There is tension, heartache, regret, anger, and much more as each person discloses a different attitude means of coping. I can't say that I enjoyed reading this work, but I still give it five stars. It is challenging, thought-provoking, and insightful. Campbell is a fine writer.

[Garth Mailman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neighbour with three girls spends too much time with twelve-year-old Robbie. The man “touched” me. We hear the story told from the mother’s point of view and then that of the neighbour. Doubtful there are happy endings for anyone here. Was the mother who went back to work neglectful. Was her relationship with her son too intimate? Was his father too distant? Can their marriage survive this. Already we read that she has had an affair.

Parts 3&4 are told by the perv’s wife Linda and finally 15 years later by Robbie himself. I’m interested to learn how the more volatile older brother Danny fares in all this.

Interesting statement. In law a child under 16 is considered incapable of a loving relationship. Not that anything justifies molesting a child but we read that it was culturally acceptable in ancient Greece and priests buggered altar boys for centuries.

In the final section we learn that Robbie finds it difficult to settle down and finish anything.

[Rebecca O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book evoked a roller coaster of emotions. The book tells the same story from four different perspectives - each one pulls the reader in to a feeling of empathy that is tough to pull back from. What this book brought home for me is the emotional overlay of what is sometimes dismissed as primarily a physical violation of innocence. This is gut wrenching on many levels. Scott Campbell did a terrific job of tackling a topic that is frequently sensationalized in a manner that pushes the reader to examine this issue from a variety of perspectives.

[Prescottl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb story about a boy molested by a neighbor. The plot is developed through the POV of 4 characters. The author deftly described the molestation's effects on people without writing a gratuitous sex scene.

[Kristofer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good novel and I liked the way it was told from each character perspective. As a survivor of my own childhood sexual assault this story rang pretty true to everything I went through with my emotions and experiences to even the way I viewed my parents. It was a good read.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warning: there’s abuse in this book. Well-written from the perspectives of the abused, the abuser, and the families. The subject matter is disturbing but it’s more disturbing that I felt some empathy for the bad guy. Not much, but the tiny bit I felt made me hate myself!

[Don Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reading

Excellent writing. Complicated characters, well drawn and captivating. Very enjoyable read. One of those books you want to continue longer and are sad to have come to an end.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting tale told from different perspectives. It’s told with realism, I thought it was a true story, only discovering that it was a work of fiction near the end. This did not change my feelings for the book. It was well written and a sensitive important topic.

[Sallie Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing! And I have to admit it held my interest. Would like to see what other books this author may have written.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Cathy Bankston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very emotional, honest read.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written story about a very tough subject. The characters will sit with me for a long time. Going to read another from this author.

[Catherine Musham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and engrossing

This is a novel about one of the worst crimes imaginable; prolonged sexual contact between an adult and a 12 year old boy. It’s not what you might expect, however. Told from multiple perspectives, it raises profound questions about guilt, innocence, and love. A profound exploration of a tabu subject in which humans, as flawed as they might be, are portrayed with insight and compassion. A powerful and complex story told well.

[Xerodog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst the novel makes it clear that Rob has been damaged by Jerry it does allow that all of the adult characters (including, by his own account, the victim) are flawed and imperfect people. The portrayal of these adults is the most interesting aspect of the narrative because Campbell is interested in how our natures shape our perceptions of morality, and this novel is about perception.
Obviously Jerry initiates sexual contact with a child knowing this and is punished for it. I found it disturbing that he seemed to have drawn a line under his experience in the Philippines where buying Ernesto, '.... was just business', as though this was not as serious as what he did at home. However, we all also tend to minimise our culpability in a past action when we are resolved to try not to repeat it in the future and Jerry does try to change his behaviour because he is aware that it is wrong. I think that within the moral universe of this novel this is an important factor.
By contrast, the boy's parents are also culpable, though less blameworthy. For example, Linda's dissatisfaction with her introverted husband is an understandable factor leading to her affair, which takes her focus away from her family; but isn't it also cheating and betrayal? Similarly, her husband's introversion and lack of interaction is also understandable - some people are simply quiet and introverted - but it is a failing. Jerry is able to insinuate himself into Robbie's life whilst his parents' attention is elsewhere. The adult Rob certainly has this interpretation of the events when he faces his feelings about them at last. To him their unawareness allows them to cast all of the blame onto Jerry and desire his punishment and to resent that imposed on them by their guilt and public humiliation. They seek public vindication in the courts, but they see their son as damaged even after they receive it.
Robbie at least feels that Jerry taking all of the blame is unjust, but he cannot say so without being disloyal to his parents and his community. He is adrift from community standards in not simply wanting to see the proscribed guilty party punished and be done with it. He knows that a part of himself enjoyed the attention and even the sex. The evil of all of it is that that because knowingness preceded adulthood he remains a child (incapable of taking responsibilities, finishing school, maintaining a relationship etc.). He is terribly damaged and wronged by those who were adults at the time that he suffered the abuse.
I have not mentioned the other adult, Mrs Houseman, but I see that some reviewers revile her the most. It is certainly hard to comprehend what motivates her and why she is so loyal to a man she is appalled by. When Robbie gets the news from her that Jerry has died in prison, his reaction is to want to kill her. This is terribly ironic, given that he condemns his mother for having wanted justice. Mrs Houseman is constructed as the least selfish of the novel's characters and the adult who suffers the most because of this. I thought that it was interesting that she had a religious side and, though she obviously was not a Pharisee about church attendance and practice, she tried very hard to follow her religious principles (encourage the best in people, hope that they will have integrity, trust them when they ask for your help etc.) when it came to moral judgements. You might argue that she enables him to be a monster, but if so she pays dearly for it and she never betrays him even though he does her. On balance I believe that she is punished disproportionately to her guilt for her loyalty to a man that most of us would have condemned and not attempted to understand.
In all, then, a novel that condemns the wickedness of pedophilia and chronicles its destructive consequences; but also a novel that implies that our outrage and desire to vilify others may arise from our own selfishness; that attempts to support others in their struggles may be futile; and that trust is not always rewarded. Not a very cheerful take on humanity, but not a simplistic treatment of sexual abuse either.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

May Contain Spoilers
Touched by Scott Campbell was a quick and very interesting read about a child who has been molested. It was broken down into 4 parts told from 4 different character’s perspectives. The first part is told by Linda, the young boy’s mother. Linda was an okay character, however, I felt a lot of her responses to what happened was with concern about herself. Is this my fault? Did I suspect this and just ignored it? that kind of thing. To me she was more worried about when it happened and how than trying to get her son the help he needed at that moment. She also speaks of an event in her life that I don’t understand why it was necessary to the story other than it keeps her away from being home, however, even when she was home she wasn’t off looking for her son.
The second part of the story is told from Jerry, the child molester. His point of view begins the day the news comes out of what he has been doing. I have to say even though the topic of this book is extremely difficult and what he did was horrific, I liked his character the best. He goes into his backstory with young boys and how it started with Robbie and you can tell he knows what he is doing is wrong yet he does not think he is a monster. He is in love.
The third part was from Jerry’s wife, whom I hated and I felt like she should have been punished in some way for what happen to Robbie as well.
The last part we finally get to hear from the young boy, Robbie. His point of view comes when he his 27-28 and he is feeling very restless with life. He is floating around, doesn’t know what he wants. I wasn’t sure if the stage Robbie was in in his life had to do with what happened to him as a child or if it was just because he didn’t have direction and really didn’t know what he wanted. I would have rather had his perspective from when he was younger versus the adult Robbie.
I give the book 3 out of 5 stars. I didn’t care for the characters and did not feel the need to have them in the story, I think just Jerry and Robbie would have been fine and it would have been just as powerful. As the story goes, I felt too much time was spent going over each characters history when it was their turn to speak that it took away from the present moment. Plus learning more about their past did not make me like them any more or less. Overall the book was good. I had to keep reminding myself that this took place in the 80s and that is why everyone reacted so differently than if it happened today.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I broke plans to keep reading this book. I rarely find a story I can't put down, but this one pulled me in.

I enjoy stories on the darker side of the human condition - the things so seldom shown in the studio movies. Bad book reviews about deplorable characters and terrible events are often the reason I select a book. I am the reader that enjoys the opportunity to sympathize with the antagonists. When a writer can make that easy, I'm hooked. Give me characters who make regrettable decisions, tell me how they feel and how they manage their poor decisions in life. This is the depth of character I seek in novels.

The style of writing was also really appealing. This writer does a lot of "directing," for lack of a better term. I could see the characters' movements in my mind. It played like a film - a film I'd love to watch. The structure of this novel is something I haven't encountered before (though I admit I'm not the most well-read person), and I loved it. I appreciated the movement of the story in this unusual structure. He created a fantastic tumbling pace throughout. His segues between past and present in the characters' thoughts were wonderful.

I think my only criticism is that all of the characters sounded the same, but the way their stories played out made it easy to get involved. I didn't feel bored by their similar language.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated it a 3 because I found it interesting enough to finish and rarely finish books I don't "like". Although I usually don't need to like or be able to identify with characters of a book in order to like the story, I didn't have any respect for the 4 main characters whatsoever. I wanted absolute justice for the sicko who raped the boy, for instance, the perp going to jail and having the tables turned on him would have been a good start. The boy's mother, who used emotions to guide her actions, pursued "justice" the wrong way to get results. The wife of the perp was weak minded and short-sighted, no surprise there. The boy....ok, he was young, but still old enough and mentally capable to know he was setting himself up for more of the same even going around that loser....geez... particularly after being molested by the pervert prior. Ha...considering what I just wrote, I guess I do have to like or identify with at least 1 of the main characters to enjoy a story. I stand corrected.

[Jennifer Farr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not too impressed with this book. I liked the perspective of the mother-I think mothers always internalize things like this, and in her case, she really WAS a little inattentive. I HATED the perspective of his-I don't feel like he ever "loved" Robbie-it was just his sick obsession and would have moved on. I understood (almost) the perspective of the wife-until he molested Robbie. She had enough warning signs. And Robbie: you can just tell he is screwed up and will be for the rest of his life. HOWEVER-you have to decide at some point to move on and deal with it. He never did. After all that-I had to remember this was based in the 1980's and I believe it was a "don't tell" era.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. A lot. I was a victim's advocate for almost ten years. This is a subject that is very important to me and the repercussions of abuse aren't always explained well. While it was hard for me to read the mother's, the wife of the predator and worst of all, the predators pov, I felt that the explanation of the aftermath and the willingness to look at what happened thru adult eyes as told by Robby, was really great. My favorite idea was when he explained it was like being a dog chained to fence and you realize the chain isn't attached. Uplifting and healing knowing he was on his way to truly being "OK".

[Edna B · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book i think was written by someone who.can "picture" what happens in the aftermath of a molestation....but really this author was so poorly educated i could sense the characters forcing the cliches from themselves....the mom screaming to the neighborhood molester? what mother does that? child molestation is still a humiliating crime...you never announce even in anger on accident to the neighborhood that your child was molested based on your child not even really talking about it....it was all just too forced and fake...

[Shawn Mecham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book

I like how the author helped us understand each person's viewpoint through devoting sections of the book to their take on the story. A man falls in love with a boy and they have a relationship. It is then made known to others. The story is not simple. We can understand each character's turmoil in dealing with the reality of this situation. The boy's mother, father, he himself... What do they think and feel? The neighbor down the street -Jerry( the perpetrator), his wife, and daughters, how do they deal with the aftermath?

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was weird/hard for me to read. It gave perspectives of all people involved or related to a little boy who was molested as a child. There is a lot of psychological trauma going on in the story that made me angry. I have heard some people think there is a sympathetic twist reading about the molester, but hearing his rationalizations just made me more angry. I'm just not sure this book accurately depicts the situation.

[Ellen Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book gives 4 different perspectives -- a child molesting mailman, his wife, the victim and his mother. the most powerful part of this book is the author's ability to humanize Jerry the predator. The voices of each narrator are so authentic it's really disturbing and moving at the same time. on my top 10 list.