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Lost Memory of Skin
by Russell Banks
by Russell Banks
An unusual novel about a character called The Kid and his friend The Professor. (Spoilers ahead.) The Kid is young, maybe 21 or 22, and he's a registered sex offender with ten years of probation to serve. He was addicted to porn as a teenager, and he was kicked out of the army for distributing porn to other soldiers. The Kid meets a girl online who's only fourteen years old, and they agree to meet at her house. He brings along a six pack of beer, condoms, and lube. Hence his conviction as a sex offender.
In Calusa, where the novel is set, sex offenders have very limited places to live. Most of them are homeless and live on an island near the causeway. Registered sex offenders aren't allowed to live within 2500 square feet of schools or where children live, and so they have VERY few options.
The Professor is a sociologist, and he takes on The Kid and the homeless sex offenders living on the causeway as a project. He thinks that he can help them get organized, regain some of their self esteem, and that he can even cure of them of whatever sexual deviations they might have.
The bulk of the novel is about The Kid's relationship with The Professor. But honestly, The Professor becomes an even more interesting character than the protagonist. He's a genius, for one thing, but he's in the top percentile of geniuses. He's too smart for Mensa, and he belongs to another, more exclusive organization. He's also obese, weighing over 500 pounds.
Other characters are present in the novel--some sympathetic, some less sympathetic.
I didn't think I'd be able to empathize or sympathize with a sex offender, and I think it was a brave choice for the author to write a novel with a sex offender as the protagonist. The author doesn't make the case that sex offenders ought not be punished, but he does offer a convincing argument that we should think more carefully about how we handle their punishment and/or reintegration into society.
But Lost Memory of Skin isn't a novel about society so much as it's a novel about individuals. The Professor and The Kid seem like real people by the end of the book, and I felt like I'd gotten to know each of them by the end of the novel. That's more than some novelists will ever achieve.
In Calusa, where the novel is set, sex offenders have very limited places to live. Most of them are homeless and live on an island near the causeway. Registered sex offenders aren't allowed to live within 2500 square feet of schools or where children live, and so they have VERY few options.
The Professor is a sociologist, and he takes on The Kid and the homeless sex offenders living on the causeway as a project. He thinks that he can help them get organized, regain some of their self esteem, and that he can even cure of them of whatever sexual deviations they might have.
The bulk of the novel is about The Kid's relationship with The Professor. But honestly, The Professor becomes an even more interesting character than the protagonist. He's a genius, for one thing, but he's in the top percentile of geniuses. He's too smart for Mensa, and he belongs to another, more exclusive organization. He's also obese, weighing over 500 pounds.
Other characters are present in the novel--some sympathetic, some less sympathetic.
I didn't think I'd be able to empathize or sympathize with a sex offender, and I think it was a brave choice for the author to write a novel with a sex offender as the protagonist. The author doesn't make the case that sex offenders ought not be punished, but he does offer a convincing argument that we should think more carefully about how we handle their punishment and/or reintegration into society.
But Lost Memory of Skin isn't a novel about society so much as it's a novel about individuals. The Professor and The Kid seem like real people by the end of the book, and I felt like I'd gotten to know each of them by the end of the novel. That's more than some novelists will ever achieve.
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