Rape New York

In a harrowing and intimate account Leo candidly recounts her own "nonviolent" rape of January 25, 2001, and the subsequent six years she spent seeking justice. Ninety-four percent of rapes and sexual assaults occur within 50 miles of the victim's home, and Leo's was no different; she was assaulted in her New York apartment in the middle of the day. Despite the presence of a gun, there was no violence beyond that inherent in the act. After the initial chapter detailing her assault, most of this thin volume chronicles how Leo ended up living in the run-down Harlem apartment where the rape occurred and her years fighting an apathetic legal system. Being raped forced Leo to consider the concept of home as a safe place and confront an array of issues including poverty, crime, corruption, and "the myth of New York," wherein "parasite and host are intertwined." Refusing to be silenced or ignored, Leo takes on her assailant, landlord, and ultimately the city of New York, raising important environmental, social, physical, emotional, psychological, and existential questions. At times recalling Joan Didion's Sentimental Journeys, Leo's book is an intensely vulnerable and honest attempt to correct many of the false perceptions associated with rape. (Feb.)