7.8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Paperback Originally published 1 November 2002 Genre Novel Country United States of America | 3.9/5 Goodreads Publication date 1 November 2002 OCLC 50852516 Publisher Graywolf Press | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pages 272 p. (paperback edition) ISBN 1-55597-367-1 (paperback edition) Nominations Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction Works by Michael Lowenthal The same embrace, The Paternity Test: A N, Charity Girl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Avoidance is a 2002 novel by Michael Lowenthal. It was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2003.
Avoidance explores the topics of child sexual abuse, hebephilia and pederasty. It is also about social conventions and mores, and ways in which they depend on environment and upbringing.
Plot summary
Jeremy is a 28-year-old man working at the summer camp where he spent a childhood summer and where he found a true sense of family after the death of his father. Jeremy now works at the camp as an assistant director.
He becomes infatuated with Max, a disturbed 14-year-old. When Max confides in him that he has been sexually abused by the camp director, who was a victim of sexual abuse himself, Jeremy realizes just how close he came to actually committing the same crime.