That seems simple and straightforward until one attempts to apply it to events occurring in the real world of our experience. Volumes have been written and are being written about just exactly what constitutes “ consent” or “withholding consent.” And current usage of the term does not restrict it to women. Young boys are raped by pedophiles. The Catholic Church is reeling from charges of rape of young boys by members of the priesthood. Men can be raped as well; this practice in prison constitutes a significant and growing problem.

And the definition is so dispassionate, devoid of any description of the rapist’s motivation or the agony, fear and despair of the victim. And the public might like it that way. Few, save the victim and his or her family spend much time considering these deeply personal issues. They may make jokes, “If you’re about to be raped, just lay back and enjoy it,” “Confucius say, rape is impossible, woman without pants can run faster than man with pants halfway down.” All too readily, many believe that the incidence figures are much too high; that “she was really asking for it”

In Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other countries, family members of the victim compound the problems of the individual who has been subjected to “ritualized rape” by enemy forces. They believe that there is always some compliance or consent and that the woman should be subjected to ostracism for the rest of her life. In Afghanistan, multiple rape has been doled out as a proper legal sentence for a woman who committed some minor transgression involving local custom.

Knowledge about these crimes and their determinants is either non-existent or superficial in character. Each rape is a unique event. To understand what was involved would require some very serious study of the lives and personalities of both the criminal and his victim. And such in-depth personal explorations are hard to accomplish. One might think that “sex offender treatment programs” would routinely amass such information about background and motivations of this criminal.

It would be easy for the reader to dismiss the explicit sexual history of Curtis and Peggy as flat out “filth.” While this characterization may be right, it is also an easy way out. To understand fully the part that these two play in the rape, it is necessary to know how their pasts play into it. And that requires detailed accounts of the ingredients or determinants involved in this crime. It is not enough to say that Curtis had been “raped and sodomized repeatedly as a child”-------and “as an adolescent, he tried to reverse roles, becoming the perpetrator rather than the victim.” While these statements are true, they do not convey to the reader the dreadful impact of these experiences. Knowledge of specific sexual encounters makes it more likely that the reader can begin to empathize with this man or woman. If this happens, it is usually said that the reader can “walk in the shoes” of the other individual. In this book, it would be more appropriate to say “lie in the bed” of Curtis or Peggy. To take full advantage of this opportunity to develop a meaningful understanding of these central character , it would be helpful to dwell on these experiences, to appreciate fully the pain and fear of Curtis and Peggy as they are sexually assaulted, and the unending fear and anxiety they experience for days as they await the next inevitable onslaught.

It is only with this highly personalized approach to this novel, that the reader can begin to come close to developing a full understanding of what really went on in the lives of these two people. Only then, would it be possible to realize that in this instance that both Curtis and Peggy were truly victims. One can invoke words such as “Fate, “they were forced to play with the cards that were dealt them.” or “shit just happened.”