UNITED STATES
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Reviewed by Carolyn See
“Sexual molestation of children, particularly of boys by men, is a silenced plague in our culture, because men can’t be victims; they can’t admit it has happened to them and we can’t admit it has happened to our men.” This quote comes not from “The Tricky Part” but from “Never Let Me Go,” by Chuck Rosenthal, published last year. Both are marvelous, courageous and above all thoughtful memoirs by middle-age men who have chosen to share the complex tales of their abuse as children – of how it affected them as they tried to grow up, tried to be good and decent men. Both take place in a Catholic context. Both are ridden with despair and guilt and with sad, choked affection.
The cover picture of “The Tricky Part” is almost too much to bear. It shows little Marty Moran standing up in a kayak, out on a camping excursion. He holds his paddle above his head in a gesture of triumph; he’s smiling to beat the band. He’s wearing a life preserver, but his emotional life already has been destroyed; he’s on this trip with Bob, an unmarried 30-year-old pedophile who used to be a Catholic camp counselor and may once have been a seminarian. Marty’s parents have approved this outing with Bob – as they will continue to do for years – and by the time he’s 15, Marty will have learned more about coercion, sex, illicit excitement, deceit and sorrow than most people will in a lifetime. All this happens against a background of suffering plaster saints, a great-aunt who is a contemplative nun and a mother whose idea of small talk goes something like this: “I can tell you one thing. ... I’d rather find out one of my children was dead than homosexual.”