Two Weeks Since My Last
Confession
Kate Genovese
www.kategenovese.com
Libros International
ISBN: 1-905988-13-3 978-1-905988-13-6
336 pages
From October 1951 through October 1985, readers follow
the lives of the O’Brien family in Two Weeks Since My Last Confession
by Kate Genovese. John O’Brien, the respected politician, and Marie, his
fanatically religious wife, have eight children and, by worldly standards,
should have been the happy, perfect family. After all, they appeared to
have it all—or did they?
In doing this review I am going to concentrate mainly
on the main character, Maureen Bridget O’Brien, whose name was immediately
shortened to “Molly” by her father who wanted her named after her
great-grandmother. Molly is the human thread that intricately weaves
the story of this family onto written pages—ones that depict a very
messed-up family. Today a psychologist would use the word
“dysfunctional” to describe this unit of ten.
Molly, the next to the youngest child, is the defiant
one with a unique and strong personality whose impertinent acts often get
her into trouble, especially with her mother. Mrs. O’Brien insists that her
daughter go to confession every two weeks. Molly thinks this is stupid and
says that she is tempted to commit a mortal sin to see how many Hail
Marys and Our Fathers the priest would give her. Much later in
life Molly realizes that her mother never talked about God’s endless love;
instead, she continually tried to instill the fear of God in her children.
It all seemed ritualistic and silly to Molly’s rebellious nature which
landed her in a Catholic school for girls during her freshman year of high
school.
At the age of fourteen, Molly meets seventeen-year-old
Bobby Angelo, a young good-looking boy, and her life changes forever. Very
popular, he has a reputation as far as “loving and leaving” girls; however,
Molly is determined that she isn’t going to be one of those whom he makes
love to and forgets. They are very close—so close that she tells him about
her older brother Sean who had molested her. Though her father had believed
her and punished this son, her mother had always downplayed the accusation,
telling her that she was exaggerating the situation. Even when Molly
confronted her with the fact that he had also tried to do sexual things with
two of her older sisters, her mother remained in denial. Sean had always
been very special to Mrs. O’Brien; it seemed he could do nothing wrong in
her eyes.
Though Bobby wanted sex, Molly held out for over a
year, wanting to be sure that she was ready and that he truly cared about
her. And he did. She was beautiful, extremely mature for her age, witty,
and a true challenge. It wasn’t long until he told her that he loved her
and was in their relationship for the long haul, promising her that he’d
marry her in four years when he finished college. He had a scholarship to
Holy Trinity College, and before he left, they finally did have sex. The
two of them truly believed that their love would last forever. Each time
they were together, the bond between them became stronger. But when she
became pregnant, everything changed; she rejected his request for her to
have an abortion. Though she went away and had the baby, she was forced by
her prominent family into giving up her daughter for adoption. Bobby, after
only one year of college, had accepted an offer by the New York Mets to play
professional baseball. He wanted her but not the baby, while she wanted both
the baby and his father. As it turned out, the words “long haul” taunted
her memory as Bobby disappeared from her life.
While in college, Molly’s brother Sean got involved
with drugs—even selling them—but his father used his position as a senator
to fix it so he wouldn’t have a police record. It was then Sean entered
into the army and, despite his father’s wishes, joined the 82nd
Airborne and went to Viet Nam. He fell in love with a Vietnamese woman, and
she had his son. But once he was home, he was trapped into marrying a woman
he didn’t love, and taking a job he didn’t want. After seeing a
psychologist, his life gradually changed as he made up his mind to be his
own person, instead of allowing his father to dictate his life. When he
discovered that a torturing dream was indeed reality, it was the beginning
of an inward emotional healing that involved sexual abuse. He also became a
“rebel with a cause” as a Viet Nam veteran who was against the war.
Molly’s life goes on a downward spiral as she sinks
further and further into the world of drugs and addiction. She does
whatever is necessary, including selling her body, in order to support her
heroin habit. How and why does this happen? Was it the fact that her
brother molested her? Was it because her parents dictated orders more than
they listened? Was it because she had lost the love of Bobby and been
forced to give up her daughter? Perhaps it was all of these things and
more. I do know that the journey is so vividly portrayed that I felt the
pain of traveling it with her.
This riveting book, though fiction, presents readers
with a true picture of the perils of drug addiction, incest, physical and
sexual abuse, and the dark secrets of a family. But it is also a story of
hope and restoration. The author includes valuable resources in regard to
childhood sexual abuse and incest that many will find useful. The book is
definitely a “must read” and is recommended for all adults.
Bettie Corbin Tucker
For IP Book Reviewers
03/29/08
