He agrees to talk on the record and meet in person. When her nightmares worsen, Jeannie decides-after fourteen years of silence-to reach out to Mark. It is always about him: one of her closest high school friends, a boy named Mark. She lives in Baltimore where she is an Assistant Professor of English at Towson University.Ī New York Times Editors’ Choice and Best Book of the Year at TIME, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, and Electric Literature Jeannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare since she was a teenager. Her writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times, and the New Yorker. AUTHOR: Jeannie Vanasco is the highly acclaimed author of My Father's Glass Eye. Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl is a necessary contribution to the #MeToo discussion and a springboard for other women to share their stories. Through interviews with the perpetrator - transcripts of which are included in the book - and wide-ranging research, Jeannie's compelling memoir explores how the incident impacted both of their lives, while examining the culture and language surrounding sexual assault and rape. As a means of processing her conflicted feelings, she resolves to face her trauma head-on. With the election of Trump and the rise of the #MeToo movement, recurrent nightmares of the incident that plagued her as a girl have returned. Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl is a memoir about Jeannie Vanasco's friendship with the man who sexually assaulted her fifteen years ago when they were nineteen years old. Precipitated by the #MeToo movement, Jeannie confronts her rapist for closure - an incredibly moving memoir for our times. Is it the reason you dropped out of college. I’ll ask him: Do you still think about what happened. I won’t tell him that everything is okay between us. I want to include Mark in the book, but I’m not sure if he will agree to be included. #3 It is harder to say no in person than over email or over the phone. I was sure that he would discover a complicated formula that high school students would write on their wrists before exams. I told him that someday he would become a famous engineer. #2 I had a friend, Mark, who was a mechanic. I pictured a knight, an eleventh-century Norman invader, a sorcerer in a fantasy novel, a president of a Martha’s Vineyard men’s club, and a child of artfully tattooed parents.

I combed a naming dictionary for some rough translation of friend, and landed on Aldwin: old friend. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had to find a way to protect my former friend’s identity, so I decided to use a pseudonym. Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

The Glass Eye by Jeannie Vanasco