Inexcusable
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3.4 • 20 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"I am a good guy. Good guys don't do bad things. Good guys understand that no means no, and so I could not have done this because I understand."
Keir Sarafian knows many things about himself. He is a talented football player, a loyal friend, a devoted son and brother. Most of all, he is a good guy.
And yet the love of his life thinks otherwise. Gigi says Keir has done something awful. Something unforgivable.
Keir doesn't understand. He loves Gigi. He would never do anything to hurt her. So Keir carefully recounts the events leading up to that one fateful night, in order to uncover the truth. Clearly, there has been a mistake.
But what has happened is, indeed, something inexcusable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
High school senior Keir Sarafian may remind Lynch fans of Earl Pryor, the narrator of Who the Man. Though more intelligent than Earl, Keir is also an unreliable narrator, whose reporting belies to readers the unintended results of his ungainly strength and impulsive actions. As the novel opens, something horrible has happened: "The way it looks is not the way it is. Gigi Boudakian is screaming at me so fearsomely." Intervening chapters in flashback trace how Keir and Gigi, who were childhood friends, arrived at this moment, which readers soon gather is a date rape from Gigi's perspective, and a natural progression of shared intimacy from Keir's viewpoint. Lynch plunges readers into Keir's psyche in a way that makes him almost sympathetic, if frightening. On the football field earlier in the school year, Keir tackled a receiver and crippled him, but in his mind, he was only doing what he was trained to do (the opponents "were getting too comfortable. Too lazy, spoiled, entitled.... It is inexcusable"). Later in the novel, when he learns that his older sisters (he "talks about ... like angels") simply boycotted his graduation (not absent due to exams, as they had said), his world crumbles. With his portrait of Keir, Lynch makes it nearly impossible for readers to see the world in black-and-white terms. This book is guaranteed to prompt heated discussion. Ages 13-up.
Customer Reviews
Not something I thought I’d like ***spoilers!!!***
Spoilers ahead!!!!: So I first read this book a long time ago, back when I was a teenager when I randomly picked it out at a bookstore. This is the story of Keir Sarafian, a popular athlete about to graduate high school who lives with his widowed dad. His older sisters, Mary and Fran, are in college and don’t visit often. Keir is one of those people who really wants to believe that he is a good person and cannot possibly do anything bad. When he is accused of something bad or even presented with evidence of his wrongdoing (ie video of him participating in vandalism with his teammates) he still can’t own up to his mistakes. He doesn’t think he is that same person he sees or other people see doing bad things. When he injures a rival player during a football game, he describes himself as tackling him “exactly how he was trained to do”. There’s a major disconnect between what Keir sees and what everyone else sees. The chapters alternate between the present (the night after graduation) and the weeks leading up to it. Keir is infatuated with his longtime friend Gigi Boudakian, though she does not seem to share these feelings. Gigi says that Keir has raped her the night after graduation but Keir does not believe her because he does not think he’s capable of doing it, because in Keirs mind he loves her and would never hurt her. Overall, while the story might be difficult for some people to process, I found it interesting and compelling. It discusses difficult topics like rape, drug abuse, dysfunctional families, bullying etc from the perspective of someone who would typically be the “bad guy”. But the story doesn’t defend Keir’s actions or try to make you excuse something inexcusable. That’s a delicate balance and this book comes close. This is a book I’ve read many times over and definitely recommend it.
lynch
I read ciberia and im reading this book its AWESOME AND SO IS THE OTHER BOOK.