Notes On A Silencing: A Memoir

"Notes on a Silencing is a difficult, often enraging memoir to read. It’s the kind of book that left me visibly angry every time I put it down. But it’s an important and honest look at sexual assault and the institutional cover-ups that often immediately snap into place to protect not only perpetrators, but the organizations in and around where the assaults take place. In this memoir, Lacy Crawford recounts her time as a high school student at one of America’s most prestigious boarding schools. Re-creating moments in dorm hallways, cafeterias and ice rinks with detailed, engaging prose, she documents life on campus both before and after she was assaulted. She describes how students, teachers, administrators and even doctors all singled out and attacked her, and protected the two boys who assaulted her. When I interviewed Crawford, she said, “I want all of the girls and women who have ever been made to carry the blame for the aggression of men, the aggression of others – I wanted them to see that they were intended to carry that blame and that it was never theirs.” This book did just that, and did it with vivid and unforgettable writing."