There were many possible responses to this kind of family life. Denfeld’s mother, herself a victim of rape and violence, racked by guilt at having failed to protect her children, died by suicide. Denfeld’s brother tried to escape his history by becoming what Denfeld calls, in her searing essay “The Other Side of Loss,” “the king of normal.” He wore a button-down shirt, carried a pocket protector, tried to wipe away the stains of their childhood. He tried in vain, and he died by suicide, too. “I just wanted to be a good boy,” he said before he left.
