Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 26, 2016 Jillian rated it it was amazing

This book so perfectly depicts everything that is horribly wrong with rape and justice in this country. If you look like a "nice guy" no one wants to believe you could do horrible things. Everyone is so worried about ruining the lives of these "poor college student" (men) who "made a mistake" (RAPED) and villainizing these young women just for reporting what happened to them. They pick one college town (which by the way, doesn't have more accounts of rapes than the average college town) and foll ...more

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Aug 03, 2015 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, true-crime, western, journalism

Krakauer's tapping into one of the most sensitive nerves in American jurisprudence right now with his detailed reporting on a series of acquaintance rapes (and the fallout thereof) in the titular city. While at times he comes off with the impassioned earnestness of a recent convert and his anger at certain people in the piece is palpable, he also does a valuable service in detailing the facts of these crimes in such a way that they aren't as hazy as a brief news segment might make them out to be ...more

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May 05, 2015 Annie rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, read-in-2015, audiobooks, favorites

More like 4.5. The second half was a bit too much transcript, not enough conclusion. But still - the whole product is jarring and intense. Highly recommend.

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Feb 04, 2017 Erica rated it liked it

This is important, detailed coverage of the rape scandals that occurred in the early 2010s involving Missoula football players. I wish more people would read it. It was a tough haul--I had many nightmares during the weeks I read it.

I wish the book had been written a bit differently, however. It is most essentially a blow-by-blow of the events surrounding several specific rapes, and the court proceedings leading to various ends for different rapists. In that way, it is still too easily dismissed This is important, detailed coverage of the rape scandals that occurred in the early 2010s involving Missoula football players. I wish more people would read it. It was a tough haul--I had many nightmares during the weeks I read it.

I wish the book had been written a bit differently, however. It is most essentially a blow-by-blow of the events surrounding several specific rapes, and the court proceedings leading to various ends for different rapists. In that way, it is still too easily dismissed by camps that would like to "defend the perpetrator" and blame the victim, because it in some lights could be seen in the ever-vocal, ever-idiotic "it's just a few bad apples" camp, not the football culture=rape culture camp. So, in this sense, I wish that Krakauer had gathered more evidence to be able to argue that these are representative of more insidious events nationwide. There's only a bit of it in the form of general statistics about all rape (not just rape on college campuses, and not specifically rape as related to American football).

He does make a few important connections for the lay reader at the end: one, he points out that the current American legal system is not set up to pursue justice. It all too often is simply about "winning." This is the same logic that drives college football teams (and all sports)--winning is everything. So, the truth is often suppressed/ignored (and the victims re-victimized) by a legal system whose end game serves the more athletic, powerful, male, popular, rich, entitled men who more often than not run it.

Second, and perhaps most important for men to hear, Krakauer examines the links between the psychological traumas of war and rape, and the PTSD that follows both. While Krakauer's general stance throughout the book seemed a bit stupid--that he just didn't know how serious rape is, and didn't know often it happens, in all kinds of circumstances--there are plenty of well-meaning men that are in the same boat. The fact that Krakauer was most shocked by the number of women friends and family that told him they had been raped as he was writing the book is especially revealing about American rape culture--for as much as women can't control it, we are also allowing it to continue in not even letting our closest friends and relatives know what has happened in our lives.

Citations to follow: "The Boys in the Clubhouse" NYT, Oct 18, 2014 ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: to-read-own

This one has been on my #TBR for four years and there is a reason it took me so long to read it. This book is difficult, heartbreaking, powerful, and necessary. I listened on fits and starts, but often was so riveted to the story that I sat in my car in my driveway, unable to turn it off. Well researched yet personal, the examples of courage and strength displayed by the young women in this book took my breath away and made me stronger.

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Sep 29, 2017 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

Shelves: src

While Rape has become an increasing problem among college students and young adults, as the author of this book has aptly shown, Li seems that excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages is just as big a problem and should be addressed with as much fervor as rape.

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