This Young Girl Passing

3.8/5 ( ratings)

This Young Girl Passing explores the dynamics of an illicit relationship between a troubled schoolgirl and her young French teacher in Upstate NY in the 1970s, simultaneously capturing the feel of post-Vietnam life in America. In alternating chapters the novel jumps twenty years forward, tracing the renewed affair between the teacher and student which continues until the teacher’s wife discovers the affair. This Young Girl Passing is a non-linear love story and a realistic portrayal of Middle America that spans three decades.

This Young Girl Passing
Donald Breckenridge. Unbearable Books , $10.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-57027-234-9
Depicting an illicit relationship that begins in Sauquoit, NY in the 70s and the ensuing three decades worth of unspoken tension, Breckenridge masterfully develops a world of dangerous love and its damning aftermath. With brevity, Breckenridge jumps back and forth between the beginning of a sexual relationship between Sarah and her high school French teacher Bill, and the affair they re-establish 30 years later. Through this painful, life-changing teacher-student affair, Breckenridge shows that the destruction to a confused young girl's psyche may appear non-existent, but the damage is simply hidden deep within. The conversations that rattle off with ease and the detailed scenes of sexual interludes coalesce to reveal an emotionally tangled group of lost souls looking for direction. Breckenridge has composed the Lolita of our time, a troubling account of forbidden love and its magnetism no matter the consequences.
Reviewed on: 10/03/2011