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A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto
by Michelle Bowdler
She Said meets Lucky in Michelle Bowdler's provocative debut, telling the story of her rape and recovery while interrogating why one of society's most serious crimes goes largely uninvestigated.
The crime of rape sizzles like a lightning strike. It pounces, flattens, destroys. A person stands whole, and in a moment of unexpected violence, that life, that body is gone.
Award-winning writer and public health executive Michelle Bowdler's memoir indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony, least successfully prosecuted, and fewer than 3% of reported rapes result in conviction. Cases are closed before they are investigated and DNA evidence sits for years untested and disregarded.
Rape in this country is not treated as a crime of brutal violence but as a parlor game of he said / she said. It might be laughable if it didn't work so much of the time.
Given all this, it seems fair to ask whether rape is actually a crime.
In 1984, the Boston Sexual Assault Unit was formed as a result of a series of break-ins and rapes that terrorized the city, of which Michelle's own horrific rape was the last. Twenty years later, after a career of working with victims like herself, Michelle decides to find out what happened to her case and why she never heard from the police again after one brief interview.
Is Rape a Crime? is an expert blend of memoir and cultural investigation, and Michelle's story is a rallying cry to reclaim our power and right our world.
"Exhaustive research adds veracity to Bowdler's powerful account of rape's devastating aftermath. This is a brilliant study of how society views rape." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[T]he author moves effectively among the personal and the political...Ultimately, she has learned to ask: If rape is considered a crime, why were there no investigations into her own? And when will anything change? An urgent, necessary, stark exploration of 'one of the most horrific violations that can happen to a human being.'" - Kirkus Reviews
"Chanel Miller's Know My Name demonstrated that coming forward to tell one's story is in itself a powerful form of victim advocacy; Bowdler does the same in this affecting account." - Library Journal
"Provocative and illuminating...Bowdler's memoir is a thought-provoking, personal account of violence and its long-lasting ripples." - Booklist
"I promise you, this is the most important book you will read this year. With searing clarity and unflinching honesty, Bowdler's account of her rape and law enforcement's repeated failure to investigate it, will enrage you, shock you, inspire you, and ultimately change you forever. Bowdler is fighting for all of us, recovering all our stories―this is indeed our manifesto." - Alison Smith, author of Name All the Animals
"A devastating, necessary, and compelling account of one woman's experience combined with astute analysis of our country's troubling relationship to sexual violence. Bowdler's book should be required reading for all who live here." - Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me
"Michelle Bowdler's remarkable, beautifully constructed book is essential reading. It forces us to confront both the reality of sexual assault and the repeated brutalities of a system that treats survivors of rape with disdain and neglect. And yet Bowdler is no victim. This book is not only a memoir but a call to action, one that will inspire and galvanize every reader." - Ayelet Waldman, executive producer and co-creator of Netflix's Unbelievable and author of A Really Good Day
"A deeply personal look at the experiences of one rape survivor combined with the systemic and shocking societal brokenness that multiplies that harm, Michelle's book should be on the 'important reads list' for everyone over the age of eighteen living in the United States; for survivors, for those who care about and for them, for medical and criminal justice professionals, psychotherapists, and social activists who insist on dignity for all. Michelle Bowdler reminds us, 'sustained change takes time and persistence and it is never only about one person.' It is about all of us and our everyday actions both small and large." - Janet Yassen, LICSW, co-founder of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center
"Raw, visceral, urgently researched, and impeccably argued, Michelle Bowdler's Is Rape a Crime? is a book for our times. From the horrific crime she suffered―one familiar to too many women―she extracts a public call to action, forcing us not to turn away from a message at once vitally personal and publicly searing. I felt honored to read this book, and changed by it. Bowdler's voice is one we need." - Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Lambda-award winning author of The Fact of a Body
This information about Is Rape a Crime? was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michelle Bowdler is the Executive Director of Health & Wellness at Tufts University and, after graduating from the Harvard School of Public Health, has worked on social justice issues related to rape for over a decade. She is a recipient of a 2017 Barbara Deming Memorial Award and has been a Fellow at Ragdale and the MacDowell Colony. Michelle's writing has been published in the New York Times and her essays "Eventually You Tell Your Kids" and "Babelogue" were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.
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