Where I Stopped

Poet Ramsey (Blood Stories) was raped at the age of 13 by a stranger in the woods near her home. Here she details her recent efforts to trace the effects of this traumatic event on her subsequent development. The rape occurred, she explains, just when she began to be conscious of her sexual identity and to want to be desired by men. Consequently, it seemed to present her with a horrific warning. Ramsey's account of her refusal, even as a teenager, to blame herself for what happened is inspiring, as is her belief-which undergirds this book-that confronting and working through painful episodes helps banish their effects. Her unflinching scrutiny of the ways in which being raped affected her life, and her prose itself-elegant, clear and sharply insightful-make this memoir well worth reading for fans of personal narrative. (Jan.)