The Wisdom of Perversity

In past books, author and screenwriter Yglesias dealt with media success (Hot Properties), parenting (Only Children), survival (Fearless), and love and loss (A Happy Marriage). But this latest work of fiction is probably his most nakedly autobiographical, mirroring his Slate article about being sexually molested at age eight. In 1966, Brian Moran and Jeff Mark are nine-year-old best friends living in Rego Park, Queens, who are both molested by Jeff’s middle-aged cousin, Richard Klein, an NBC vice president, who also molests Julie Rosen, another cousin of Jeff’s. All three children keep silent, and Brian and Jeff stop speaking to one another. Forty years later, when Klein is publicly accused of molestation, Brian, now a successful screenwriter, Jeff, a producer and director of Hollywood blockbusters, and Julie, an archivist for the New York Public Library, are forced to confront one another about what really happened when they were children and whether or not to break their decades-long silence. As the story moves toward its emotionally devastating climax, the author refuses to allow his characters anything approaching an easy resolution. Instead, he shows how a combination of guilt, fear, silence, and hidden agendas conspire to allow sexual predators to go unpunished. In the end, this novel dramatizes some dark truths about the continuing fallout of being a victim of abuse. (Mar.)