This has been a hard post to know how to start, so it’s taken me a little longer to get it out. Sometimes you just have to stall a bunch while re-reading chapters of Yes Please to give yourself the distance to figure out what to say…for example. (Kindle is amazing.)
This is unquestionably a heavy book, but a really important one. On one hand, it’s hard to know what to say about rape on college campuses, but the difficulty is what makes it all the more important to initiate these conversations. It’s a super, super important conversation for administrators to have, and it’s hard to know what steps (right or wrong) they are taking on any given campus at any given time.
The book itself shares harrowing accounts of sexual assaults by football players at the University of Montana in Missoula. The amount of red tape and complications affiliated with the reporting and punishing of rape on college campuses as reported by Jon Krakauer is horrifying. Though this book focuses on a particular campus that has had some of the most high profile cases in recent history, there is no question that the circumstances ring true for many colleges and universities.
There is a huge responsibility on the part of administrations at all institutions of higher education to keep their students safe on campus; there is also a responsibility on their parts to ensure that students are treated fairly in campus judicial processes. This book explores many of the complexities of these sometimes-conflicting responsibilities and to often disappointing results. Missoula highlights just how often things can go awry.
A small note: I had initially made it a goal to read two Krakauer books last week because I had three days of unemployment and Under The Banner of Heaven seemed like a more traditional introduction to his books than this one. That said, I can only see a book on so many bestseller shelves and in so many hands before I decide to take the plunge and read it, ignoring the books already on my wish list. I am hoping to read Under The Banner of Heaven soon- I had thought about it for next week but thought I needed some fiction instead.
This is a fascinating and incredibly important book- I imagine it will find its place in higher education curriculums and university administrators’ bookshelves for years.
You’ll like this if: you like factual accounts of specific topics. It’s hard to imagine saying someone would like this, but it’s as fascinating as it is horrifying.
Happy reading!
Buy Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
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