High school senior Keir Sarafian may remind Lynch fans of Earl Pryor, the narrator of Who the Man. Though more intelligent than Earl, Keir is also an unreliable narrator, whose reporting belies to readers the unintended results of his ungainly strength and impulsive actions. As the novel opens, something horrible has happened: "The way it looks is not the way it is. Gigi Boudakian is screaming at me so fearsomely." Intervening chapters in flashback trace how Keir and Gigi, who were childhood friends, arrived at this moment, which readers soon gather is a date rape from Gigi's perspective, and a natural progression of shared intimacy from Keir's viewpoint. Lynch plunges readers into Keir's psyche in a way that makes him almost sympathetic, if frightening. On the football field earlier in the school year, Keir tackled a receiver and crippled him, but in his mind, he was only doing what he was trained to do (the opponents "were getting too comfortable. Too lazy, spoiled, entitled.... It is inexcusable"). Later in the novel, when he learns that his older sisters (he "talks about [them]... like [they were] angels") simply boycotted his graduation (not absent due to exams, as they had said), his world crumbles. With his portrait of Keir, Lynch makes it nearly impossible for readers to see the world in black-and-white terms. This book is guaranteed to prompt heated discussion. Ages 13-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Inexcusable
Narrated by Scott Merriman
Chris LynchUnabridged — 4 hours, 13 minutes
Inexcusable
Narrated by Scott Merriman
Chris LynchUnabridged — 4 hours, 13 minutes
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Overview
Date rape -- from the accused's point of view -- is the subject of this "finely crafted and thought-provoking page-turner" (SLJ), a National Book Award Finalist from Printz Honor-winning author Chris Lynch.
Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And, maybe most important of all, Keir is a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it.
But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says at all. What Gigi says seems impossible to Keir -- something inexcusable -- the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.
As Keir recalls the events leading up to his fateful night with Gigi, he realizes that the way things look are definitely not the way they really are...and that it may be all too easy for a good guy to do something terribly wrong.
Chris Lynch has written a no-holds-barred story about truth, lies, and responsibility -- a story that every good guy needs to hear.
Editorial Reviews
Gr 9 Up-Keir is a senior who fancies himself a "lovable rogue." So do his widowed father, his older sisters, and his classmates. He likes being liked; he just doesn't do well with involvement. Keir would never do anything to hurt anyone intentionally-or would he? When he tackles and cripples a member of an opposing football team, it's determined to be an "accident"-one that earns him the good-humored nickname, "Killer." When he and his buddies destroy a town statue, they consider it a high-spirited, funny prank. When he gets drunk, the alcohol abuse is dismissed as "silly, harmless drinks," and drugs at parties are "strictly recreational." And when he date rapes the girl he thinks he loves, at first he convinces himself that "the way it looks is not the way it is." Keir's first-person narrative chillingly exposes the rationalization process that the troubled teen goes through to persuade himself and those around him of his innocence. Characters are clearly developed through immediately post-rape chapters that alternate with flashbacks of Keir's experiences and perceptions leading up to that point. As compelling as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (Farrar, 1999), though with a different point of view, this finely crafted and thought-provoking page-turner carefully conveys that it is simply inexcusable to whitewash wrongs, and that those responsible should (and hopefully will) pay the price.-Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Lynch has hit a homerun with this provocative, important read about Keir, a self-proclaimed "good guy" headed for college on a football scholarship. With two sisters in college, Keir lives alone with his lonely, widowed father, who treats Keir more like a buddy than a son. After Keir accidentally cripples an opponent during a football game, things really go awry, especially since his victim lets him off the hook with a letter of forgiveness. With his name cleared, his peers christen him "Killer," a nickname that seems to give him license to do all sorts of unsavory things, such as hazing classmates, vandalizing a statue, trying cocaine and ultimately, date raping Gigi Boudakian. The underage drinking and recreational drug use is handled fairly cavalierly up until the stint with cocaine, but readers will still feel uneasy as the well-crafted sequence of Keir's reckless behaviors crescendos toward a disastrous end. Keir's self-delusion, irresponsibility and sense of invincibility are dangerous, sending the important message to all teens, particularly high-school heroes and their would-be victims, that some things are inexcusable. (Fiction. YA)
"This raw and powerful book will hammer its way into your heart and haunt you. The world needs this story. And you want to read it — trust me."
— Laurie Halse Anderson, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Speak
"Chris Lynch is the best pure YA writer we have — he has the guts, he has the chops, and like his readers, he'll take a close look at anything. Inexcusable is irresistible, in its limning of the spaces between brutality and grace, between the soul and the law. Start at page one — you'll never stop."
— Bruce Brooks, Newbery Honor-Winning Author of The Moves Make the Man
"Inexcusable is a not-to-be-missed chapter in the anthropology of ritual male dating behavior. From the first phrase to the last phrase, Chris Lynch creates a character with such flawless self-deception that the reader mistakes being seduced with being stalked. In the end you become the books trophy, and you'll find your head mounted on the cover."
— Jack Gantos, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Hole In My Life
*"Expertly drawn...A nuanced, wholly believable character that will leave many readers shaking with recognition...Unforgettable."
*"Lynch's masterful exploration of the difference between perception and reality is fascinating. Teens will reread this short but complex story debating the issues of violence and responsibility."
"An interesting companion piece to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak."
"Inexcusable is a not-to-be-missed chapter in the anthropology of ritual male dating behavior. From the first phrase to the last phrase, Chris Lynch creates a character with such flawless self-deception that the reader mistakes being seduced with being stalked. In the end you become the books trophy, and you'll find your head mounted on the cover."
"Chris Lynch is the best pure YA writer we have — he has the guts, he has the chops, and like his readers, he'll take a close look at anything. Inexcusable is irresistible, in its limning of the spaces between brutality and grace, between the soul and the law. Start at page one — you'll never stop."
"This raw and powerful book will hammer its way into your heart and haunt you. The world needs this story. And you want to read it — trust me."
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172639630 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Brilliance Audio |
| Publication date: | 09/06/2016 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 523,852 |
| Age Range: | 13 - 17 Years |
Read an Excerpt
Inexcusable
By Chris Lynch
Atheneum
Copyright © 2005 Chris LynchAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0689847890
The Way It Looks
The way it looks is not the way it is. Gigi Boudakian is screaming at me so fearsomely, I think I could just about cry. I almost don't even care what the subject is because right now I am sick and I am confused and I am laid so low by the very idea that Gigi Boudakian is screaming at me that the what-for hardly seems even to matter. I love Gigi Boudakian. I hate it when people I love scream at me.
And I don't feel guilty. That is, I don't feel like I am guilty. But I sure as hell feel sorry.
I am sorry.
I am one sorry sorry bastard. And I feel very sick.
I am so sorry.
"What are you sorry for, Keir?" Gigi screams again, grabbing me by where my lapels would be if I had a jacket on, or a shirt, or anything. She can't get a purchase because I have no clothes, and very little fat, because I have been good about my health lately. She grabs, can't grab, scratches instead at my chest, then slaps me hard across the face, first right side then left, smack, smack.
"Say what you did, Keir."
"Why is Carl coming? Why do you have to call Carl, Gigi?"
"Say what you did, Keir. Admit what you did to me."
"I didn't do anything, Gigi."
"Yes you did! I said no!"
I say this very quietly, but firmly. "You did not."
"I said no," she growls. "Say it."
"I don't see why you need Carl. You can beat me up just fine on your own. Listen, Gigi, it was nobody's fault."
"Yes it was! It was your fault. This should not have happened."
"Fine, then it didn't."
"It did, it did, it did, bastard! For me it did, and it's making me sick."
"Don't. Don't be sick. I don't want you to be sick or anything. I just want everything to be all right. Everything is all right, Gigi. Please, can everything be all right?"
"It is not all right! It is not all right, and you are not all right, Keir Sarafian. Nothing is all right. Nothing will ever again ever be all right."
She is wrong. Gigi is wrong about everything, but especially about me. You could ask pretty much anybody and they will tell you. Rock solid, Keir. Kind of guy you want behind you. Keir Sarafian, straight shooter. Loyal, polite. Funny. Good manners. He was brought up right, that boy was, is what you would hear. All the things you would want to hear said about you are the things I have always heard said about me. I am a good guy.
Good guys don't do bad things. Good guys understand that no means no, and so I could not have done this because I understand, and I love Gigi Boudakian.
"I love you, Gigi."
As I say this, Gigi Boudakian lets out the most horrific scream I have ever heard, and I am terrified by it and reach out, lunge toward her and try and cover her mouth with my hands and I fall over her and she screams louder and bites at my hands and I keep flailing, trying to stop that sound coming out of her and getting out into the world.
I am only trying to stop the sound. It looks terrible what I am doing, as I watch my hands doing it, as I watch hysterical Gigi Boudakian reacting to me, and it looks really, really terrible but I am only trying to stop the awful sound and the way it looks is not the way it is.
The way it looks is not the way it is.
Copyright 2005 by Chris Lynch
Continues...
Excerpted from Inexcusable by Chris Lynch Copyright © 2005 by Chris Lynch.
Excerpted by permission.
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