Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul

A young boy sitting on a piano bench realizes one day that he will never marry. At the time this seems merely a simple if odd fact but as his attraction to boys grows stronger he is pulled into a vortex of denial. Not just for one year or even ten but for 25 years he lives in an inverted world a place like a photographic negative where love is hate attraction is envy and childhood never ends. He comes to think of himself as a kind of monster--until one day seemingly miraculously the world turns itself upright and the possibility of love floods in. Equal parts Oliver Sacks and George Orwell with a dash of Woody Allen Jonathan Rauchs memoir is by turns harrowing and funny a grippingly intimate journey through a bizarre maze of self-torment that ends with an unexpected discovery. Many people gay and straight have lived through their own versions of this story seeking to twist their personality in directions it just wouldnt go. Not all have been lucky enough to escape. First published in 2013 Denial has been revised for this new edition which includes a new afterword by the author.