The Violated

A Novel

By: Vance Bourjaily

Narrated by: Steven Menasche

The lives of four Americans born between the world wars are intertwined to devastating effect in this gripping novel from one of the 20th century's most acclaimed authors.

Beautiful, sad Ellen Beniger; her younger brother, Tom, a scholar unhappily moonlighting as a TV writer; the athletic amorist Guy Cinturon; and tough little Eddie Bissle, ex-infantryman and Ellen's secret lover, struggle to come to grips with the limits of their futures and the scars of their pasts as they enter middle age. Will the physical, emotional, and spiritual violations they have endured remain with them forever? Or can they be healed?

As The Violated builds to its stunning climax, the story of four lost souls reveals heartbreaking truths about the dark side of post-World War II America.

©1958 Vance Bourjaily; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

One of the finest late 1950s melodrama novels

For me there is no more compelling or fascinating time in American literature than the writing from the end of World War ll until the mid-1960s. One thinks of John O'hara and his novels from this time, like From the Terrace and Elizabeth Appleton. This novel is absolutely one of the best of its time and the reader will not forget the characters or the plot that travels through two generations from World War l to World War ll. A centerpiece is a childrens' theater performance of Hamlet that sets up the explosive final pages. The narrator was not top quality but that should not dissuade any readers from enjoying this novel.