My Sunshine Away, by M. O. Walsh

My Sunshine Away, by M. O. Walsh

A touching, very touching story told in plain English as if it were a father writing to his son.  I found myself repeatedly having to dry my eyes during the last few pages.  Cried myself silly.  Not out of sadness or happiness either, but because it touched so close to home even for someone as normal and unscathed by life as me.  

The narrator, as a teenager, was a suspect in the rape of Lindy Simpson, a girl his age who lived across the street in their upper middle class suburb in Baton Rouge, LA.  He idealized her, worshipped her, fantasized about her, loved her.  The author uses events, both shocking and banal, to portray the character of other suspects in the rape, all very realistic.  The Louisiana heat and culture also factor in the story. 

There is a heavy dose of page-turner technique involved, which tugs you from the close of one chapter to the start of the next one.  This is a cheap device used by authors of thrillers, pot boilers, swash bucklers, and young adult fiction.  I noticed it in this story but was not put off by it.  The way the author unfolded the story amplified its emotional punch, page tuner technique and all.  I also give the author credit for not trying to impress anyone with his vocabulary.  There was not a single word I had to look up.  I don’t mind learning new words, but that would not have made sense in the context of the story or the premise of the narration.  

All fiction is supposedly autobiographical, so I wonder how much of this story is the author’s story.  I also wonder if Walsh has any more stories in him.  This is a powerful coming-of-age story, loaded with insights about people, society, perversion, everything.  Did he use them all his insights up or does he have some more to offer his readers?  I hope he does.