The Less We Touch

"The fictional exploration of American suburbia that accelerated with Updike and Cheever gains a new investigator in Steve Duin and his powerful The Less We Touch. Duin brings that light of moral investigation to the soccer fields and basketball courts of Portland, Oregon, in a gut-wrenching debut novel whose compelling story will be uncomfortably familiar. Anyone who has ever sat in the stands, or stood on the sidelines, and watched a child play sports will relate to the sometimes murky line that can separate coach from predator, parent from bully. Duin -- the Oregonian former sports and current metro reporter, and a compelling cultural gadfly to an entire region -- brings to life with punch and authenticity the world of teen girls becoming young women, seeking both approval and simultaneous distance from parents and coaches alike. The profiles of those parents and coaches are no less on target and revealing, and show Duin's acute powers to mine what lies beneath the surface of our athletic culture. The Less We Touch does what good fiction can and must do: forever change the way we perceive the everyday events and interactions of people in our world."

--Tom Phillips, Wake Forest University