The Tattooed Heart & My Name is Rose

Book excerpt: The Tattooed Heart finds June Grey dreaming a summer alone with her grandmother in a large isolated house at Grey's Neck on the Long Island shore. Wooded hills surround the house and gives way to beach and sea. It is there she meets Ronny, a young man still firmly anchored in the fantasies of childhood. The young couple becomes cruelly caught in the complicated motives and desires of their elders as their erotic summer draws to a close. My Name Is Rose is an equal mix of journal entry and conventional narrative. Keogh's novel is an unwavering "examination of conscience" by a young wife whose marriage is breaking up after seven years. Original in perception, story, and a highly personal idiom, My Name is Rose is an enthralling work alive with the mystery and pulsating quality of life.