Touched [Paperback]

Scott Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When twelve-year-old Robbie Young comes home and tells his mother "Jerry Houseman's been touching me" the lives of both families fly out of control. Scott Campbell's first novel is a sometime shocking but always the insightful and moving story of a sexual relationship between a young boy and an older man. Told from the points of view of the man, his wife, the boy and his mother, Touched is never sensationalistic or sentimental. Campbell knows how to tell a story, and his innate empathy with all of his characters shines through on every page. Touched might disturb the reader, not because of its subject matter, but because Campbell understands the human heart and its desires all too well. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Honest, unpretentious prose characterizes this first novel about a case of criminal sexual misconduct and two families in crisis. In the opening chapter, set in 1980, Linda Young, 33, who lives in a "friendly, safe" neighborhood in Jackson, Mich., describes the moment when her 12-year-old son, Robbie, drops "his bomb": "Jerry Houseman's been touching me." Robbie says the abuse has been going on for "a while," which stretches into a few months, then a year. Jerry, a neighbor with three daughters, has been showering Robbie with gifts, treating him like a surrogate son-or so Linda has assumed. Robbie begs his mother not to tell anyone, but she and her husband call the police. Campbell delivers the story of Jerry's arrest, trial and the aftermath, from four points of view. They include Linda's unabashedly angry account, Jerry's detached and sentimental narration and a poignant portrait by Jerry's wife, Jeanette, of her husband, who has been previously attracted to young boys. The final and most convincing voice, that of Robbie as a young adult, gets to the heart of the boy's turmoil. Readers must wade past some superficial narrative here, but they'll find that, through Jeanette and Robbie, Campbell accomplishes the formidable task of illuminating the complex feelings and issues that confront his seemingly ordinary people.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 31, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553378228
• ISBN-13: 978-0553378221
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,154,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was raised in Jackson, Michigan, birthplace of the Republican party and home to the largest prison in the world beneath one roof - two facts I always suspected were linked.

I'm the author of two novels, both of which have been adapted by others for performance - one for the stage, one for the screen - and of a nonfiction collaboration which has become, now after twenty years, a staple in its field. All of which makes me feel just fine.

I invite you to visit my website at scottcampbellbooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fishhook in the guts, September 27, 2004

By 

Aquautumn (New England, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Touched (Paperback)

This book hit me like the legendary "ton of bricks". I'm an adult male who had an experience similar to Robbie's, at a similar age. I don't know how this author managed to capture the experience, but reading the book (I've gone through it twice so far) was, for me at least, a frightening and yet healing journey back in time.

I emphatically disagree with the May 14, 2001 reviewer who stated: "I was more than a little disgusted by his seemingly fond memories of his molestation and how he mentioned it as an 'affair' he had when he was young..." Read Robbie's section again. What makes you think he has fond memories of the episode? Here's a young man who cannot emotionally connect to anyone around him - parents, coworkers, (ex)girlfriend. He's drifting through life, wanting to touch and be touched, but he can't. Robbie's wounds are subtle but finally devastating. He's still living in that bus station; he can't find the door out.

Like Robbie, as a college-age adult I told a couple of my girlfriends about the experience; like him, I told it as a "wow, strange but cool, huh?" story. I now know that's just another way of disconnecting, pretending it didn't matter. Campbell got it just right. Absolutely authentic. Absolutely tragic.

Reading Jerry's (the "boylover") point of view was especially profound as well. I understand better how perpetrators feel and think. He clearly couldn't help being attracted to young boys, but Campbell shows just as clearly that he consciously chose to act on that attraction. I felt sorry for Jerry, but ultimately, his fate was the direct result of his own deliberate choices.

Young boys (yes, even before puberty) are curious about sex, just like fish are curious about the fishhook. Only adults can guard them against a lifetime of feeling that barb in their guts.

The word "Touched" is used by the author to convey multiple meanings. Add another facet: This book touched me profoundly, in multiple ways. I recommend "Touched" to all who wish to understand, and particularly to survivors of "boylove" experiences.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly good read, December 28, 2001

By 

Richard Harrold (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Touched (Hardcover)

I bought this book more than a year ago and I finally got around to reading it. I found it to be thoroughly satisfying, unsettling, and very precise in its characterizations. Unlike other reviewers, I found the section told from Robbie's perspective (the boy that was molested) to be very plausible. Certainly, there are those who have been sexually abused and would consider Robbie's reaction to be anomalous, even "fiction." But we are all individuals and we all experience things differently.

I'm a journalist that covers the courts, and I've witnessed many intergenerational criminal sex cases. I even roomed with a man who told me about when he was molested at age 12 by an older man, how at the time he was a willing participant. And I've witnessed cases that leave me with no doubt about the predatory visciousness of the perpetrator or the shameful harm inflicted on the child.

This book is merely a snapshot of a very complex phenomenon, albeit a very good snapshot. Love it, hate it, think it puerile or simplistic, whatever your reaction may be to this book, it is exceptional in its ability to provoke thought.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and Powerful, November 19, 2000

By 

Jennifer Hall (Rockmart, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Touched (Paperback)

'Touched' is as well written as it can be. It is told from four distinct points of view, all of which bring us closer to what really happened between a grown man and a young boy. The most touching, yet disturbing, of the views comes from the molester himself. Unable to help himself, he finds he has somehow fallen completely in love with a neighborhood child. How this came to be, and all that lies before and after, soon becomes painfully clear.

This is not an easy read. At times you find yourself flinching from the honesty and pain the characters reveal in their lives. Yet it should be read, if only for the way the author is able to convey a shocking, disturbing crime in realistic and non-judgemental terms.

The title 'Touched' seems at first exactly like it sounds. As you read, you find that word showing up again and again in many different ways. It is up to you to interpret the meaning. Is it literal, being touched physically? Is it the way we can all touch each others lives emotionally? Is it about being a touch off in the mind? This novel finds many ways to get under your skin.

The ending is the only downside in an otherwise tremendous work. As we see Robbie as an adult, he seems less vulnerable and harder in a way. His anger is understandable, but it is offset from the tone of the rest of the story. As it stands, though, this is a powerful work that demands to be read.