Kathryn Harrison's "The Kiss" An Appalling Memoir of Romanticized Incest

Incest is vile, repugnant, immoral and illegal.  In all but 2 states, incest between a parent & adult child is illegal.  In what universe would a 4 year sexual relationship between a father and 20 year old daughter be condoned or understandable?  The resounding answer is none.  Kathryn Harrison (b Amer 1961) is a critically acclaimed novelist, memoirist and regular critic for the New York Times Book Reviews.  I have nothing but harsh criticism for Harrison's memoir "The Kiss" which details her abhorrent incestuous relationship with her father from when she was 20-24 years.  "I am wearing no underpants and he opens my legs and puts his tongue between them.  What he does feels neither good nor bad.  It effects so completely a separation between mind and body that I don't know what I feel."  This detestable consensual sex began when Kathryn an adult.  There is no vindication for either party.  Yet, Kathryn seeks sympathy for having a loveless childhood.  Her teenaged parents separated when she was very young.  Her mother moved out of her parent's home leaving her to be raised by the grandparents.  Her mother visited only intermittently.  Kathryn's attempt at justification is "A mother who won't see me and a father who tells me I am there only when he does see me."  The memoir is a clarion call for psychological intervening.  It does come from her mother who brings Kathryn along to a psychiatrist whom they consult together.  Her mother tells the Dr. she thinks Kathryn is having sex with her father which Kathryn denies and the lies remain dormant.  But she cannot deny, cauterize or victimize her willing participation in this lurid and revolting conduct.  She claims herself powerless and ineffectual. "My need is inexorable.  I can't arrest it anymore than I could stop myself from falling if having stepped from a rooftop into the air.  What I feel is not so much guilt as dislocation."  I felt nothing but distaste & revulsion for her salacious lack of self-control.  I condemn her father, the preacher of his local church.  She questions him if they will face Hell.  He replies "There are rules that apply to most people and there are people who are outside of those rules."  There is nothing redeeming in "The Kiss".  It's an arid & numbing read suffused with shocking & disturbing revelations.