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From BC: Novel challenges views of sexual abuse.

Posted by JackSummer on 2014-November-23 01:08:55 EST, Sunday
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From BC:

Chelsea Rooney’s Pedal, her debut novel, is a bold and challenging look at issues that most veteran writers fear addressing. The novel examines sexual abuse, and also pedophiles, one of the last groups that, according to Rooney, “we’re allowed to openly hate”. Rooney, a Vancouver-based writer, completed the novel while attending UBC’s MFA program. On her website, she says, “I just wanted to write a book that was funny and also had pedophiles in it, like life does.” The humour and style with which Rooney writes renders this a necessary read for anyone seeking a fresh take on a mired subject.

Pedal tells the story of Julia, a counselling psychology master’s student researching sexual abuse, specifically, non-traumatic sexual abuse in childhood. Julia seeks to find people like herself, who experienced sexual abuse as a child, but refuse to buy in to the victim/survivor models available. She nicknames her participants her “Molestas.” In a meeting with Julia, one of the Molestas describes a therapist who tried to convince her that her depression was caused by her years of childhood molestation rather than her sister’s recent death. The Molesta responds to the therapist by telling her to go fuck herself. Julia questions whether trauma and shame come from society—and particularly doctors—rather than from the experience itself.

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