Review 10: Escaping Innocence

Escaping Innocence
A Story of Awakening
By Joe Perrone Jr.
Copyright © 2008
$16.95 Paperback
$ 3.95 E-book
$29.95 Hardback
$19.95 Large Print

Escaping Innocence is set in a time when the world, or at least the United States, was a little more innocent. During the turbulent times of the sixties, we as a nation lost some of that innocence through war, drugs, and the sexual revolution. Each generation has grown up knowing more at an earlier age, experiencing more, and therefore, the innocent days of youth are gone in the blink of an eye.

In Escaping Innocence Joe Perrone, Jr. takes us on a trip into the heart and mind of David Justin. We see the world from David’s perspective, starting out at age 14 having his first wet dream. After that, David can hardly think about anything but sex. Shortly after this, David meets his soon to be best friend, Craig Reilly, while he was in the library studying about the American Revolution. Craig introduces David to the nude photos in the latest copy of US Camera, and a friendship is born. David in his early teenage years reminded me of a quote by one of my favorite TV characters, Jeff Murdoch (Coupling, BBC) where Jeff is explaining to his friend Steve how you could wipe out all of human kind if you were an alien with a mind ray.

Make all women telepathic. Because if they suddenly found out about the kind of stuff that goes on in our heads, they would kill us all on the spot. Men are not people. We are disgustoids in human form.

David actually makes it through school and graduates, through the grace of one of his teacher’s who passes him through on effort shown rather than actual marks. Once he is out of school, David is set to meander through life. He doesn’t really know what he wants to do, other than find a way to get laid. He longs to take after his boss at the liquor store, who has more money than he needs, and goes through life with one woman after the other. Once he decides that working at a liquor store for the rest of his life is not the job of his dreams, he makes the decision to go to college. His first attempt at college was to commute to an art college. The sealer for that deal for Dave was the fact that one of the classes in the catalog was 101 Nude Drawing. He could hardly wait. This was the climax of his young life, he would be able to sit and stare at nudes for a class. The golden day finally arrived and he eagerly awaited the model. Much to his chagrin, the model turned out to be a short black man, and not a tall luscious blonde. Nude models were not supposed to be MALE! He decided to give it one more try, after all, it could’t get any worse than that, until an old grandmotherly type, dropped her robe and struck a pose. So ended art school for Dave.

After drifting for a little while longer, and nearly getting caught up by a military recruiter to join the Marines, Dave decided to go away to school. Leaving home and going to college in another state allows David an opportunity to mature and to start growing up. Not only that, but he is actually able to start focusing on class work, enough so that he makes the Dean’s list in his first year. Of course, he also made the other Dean’s list by leading a drunken mob of college men on a panty raid and is then nearly expelled.

During the summer, David and his friend Bobby-Bo take a vacation in Ocean City, and are determined to rid themselves of the stigma of virgin. Dave meets a girl who is so beautiful he can hardly catch his breath, and she really seems to like him too. The problem is that David has been raised with values and as much as he’d like to put those out of his mind, when push comes to shove, he can’t. He has the desire, he wants to take that next big step, but always at the last minute, can’t seem to follow through.

“Oh, God,” I moaned. I was scared, and growing more so by the second. What should I do? Should I do it? Yes or no? The confusion was overpowering. Visions of catechism class, with Sister Agnes remonstrating against temptation, invaded my subconscious, crowding lust from my thoughts. At the same time, Missy’s hand was roaming around in my shorts, heightening my arousal, and adding to my consternation. This was Armageddon: Missy versus Sister Agnes and the church! It should have been a toss-up, but it wasn’t even close. In fact, it was no contest. Sister Agnes and Catholicism won by a TKO!

What starts out as a horn dog’s guide to self-pleasure winds up being a story of self-discovery and awakening to the world around him. Joe Perrone, Jr. does an amazing job of getting inside the head of the adolescent David Justin and letting us see the world through his eyes. Mr. Perrone allows David to age and mature so naturally, you’d swear that you’ve known David all of his life.

Originally reviewed for the Lulu Book Review
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LK Gardner-Griffie
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