Flesh Wounds

by Mick Cochrane

Flesh Wounds is an achingly real, deeply felt first novel in the tradition of Anne Tyler and Ordinary People--a novel that shows us an American family with such startling clarity and compassion that we are completely drawn into their world.When the police come to arrest Hal Lamm, a Minneapolis salesman, for abusing his 13-year-old granddaughter Becky, his entire family must come to terms with its secrets and unhealed wounds. Hal's wife Phyllis, after decades of denial and emotional estrangement, finally confronts him. Of their four grown-up children, Ellie, herself once abused by Hal, had sought to find strength by moving away, and now discovers it back in the midst of her family. Cal, the youngest son, is a lawyer whose instinct is to defend Hal-until he becomes a father himself. Most poignantly of all, Becky, unconsoled by the parties and gifts her parents give her, and suspicious of the psychiatrist she is now required to see, keeps her rage hidden-and nearly tears herself apart.Flesh Wounds is a novel that grips us and does not let go until its genuinely uplifting climax of hard-earned reconciliation. Mick Cochrane, a writer who makes the ordinary seem extraordinary and can find unexpected moments of grace amid the everyday, has created characters so real we feel we know them and scenes that shake us with their dramatic intensity. Already winning the plaudits of excited early readers, Flesh Wounds is that all-too-rare novel that goes straight to the heart.

Genres: Fiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Monica Copeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to explain why this book is a 'meh.' It's pretty predictable and feels like many pieces of other books. Its use of metaphor is so heavy-handed it's a little embarassing (cleanse, fire, cleanse). At the same time, the plot is interesting and the characters are mostly believable. I would recommend it for my students who like books in the "A Child Called It" vein...

[Kshydog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting how the book begins with the person causing the sexual abuse and then becomes more about the members of his family. Amazing how little Hal really cared about what he had done to his victims and his family - his thinking was all about him and the inconvenience it caused in his life. Wife Phyllis was a person I could not respect even though she grew and changed by the end of the book.

[justablondemoment · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me a bit of struggling to read. It started out very good and I was starting to get pretty into it and then...it just dumped... lost my interest and I just stopped caring about the characters.

[Shannon Wyss · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good story of how an extended family reacts when incest comes into the open. Filled with secrets, lies, fear, devastation, lack of communication, distance between characters, hopelessness -- and, eventually for a few, love and hope.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike most books about abuse, Flesh Wounds tells the story of how a whole family is effected. The biggest struggle I had with the book is that it glossed over the victim. But maybe that is how it is in real life.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable. May contain trigger subjects.

[Mari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Free book from the laundry room.

[Jodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stopped reading midway through, lost interest.

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confusing.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly a first novel, but I think a good one.