What to Read After Missoula

Jon Krakauer is a master of writing about people in extreme situations, whether they go out into the wilderness in Into the Wild or follow Mormon fundamentalism in Under the Banner of Heaven, so it makes sense that he writes about sexual assault in a college town crazy for football. Missoula is home to the University of Montana Grizzlies, a NCAA Division I team. However, it is also host to a shocking streak of acquaintance rape, much of it perpetrated by athletes. Actually, what is shocking is the treatment of the victims, who are subjected to every rape stereotype in the book, not just by townspeople and other students, but by the police and the justice system. Jon Krakauer concentrates his focus on three victims who had the courage to come forward and report the crimes against them, and their experiences are appalling.  It is also gripping. While there is definitely some rough reading (Krakauer does not flinch from the specifics of the crimes), I kept flipping the pages until I was done, ignoring chores and other media clamoring for my attention. If you like true crime, this is not to be missed. If you want to know about the dark side of college social life, this is not to be missed. If you care about young women, this is definitely not to be missed.

Another book about college acquaintance rape is Liz Seccuro's Crash Into Me. Raped as a freshman at University of Virginia, Seccuro received a letter of apology from her rapist over twenty years later. What she decided to do next is the subject of the book.

Katie Hnida became the only woman in Colorado University football as a kicker. After being raped by a teammate, she spoke up. Hnida transferred to University of New Mexico, where she helped to win games, and wrote Still Kicking as a message of hope.

If documentary films are more your thing, there's The Invisible War, about rape in the military. The movie focuses on idealistic servicewomen who reported their assaults to their commanders and were betrayed by them.

In The Macho Paradox, Jackson Katz points out that men can stop rape, and tells you how. He addresses it as a men's issue and gives pointers on how to be a "stand-up guy" as opposed to a "stand-by guy."

Against Our Will by Susan Brownmiller is the seminal text on the history, politics, and sociology of rape. Pointing out the ingrained inequalities of men and women under the law, this book made the list of Outstanding Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review.

And finally, if you are a survivor of rape, there is The Rape Recovery Handbook. It contains a step-by-step program for dealing with emotional trauma.