Russell Banks's Little Monsters

AT TWENTY-TWO, the Kid is a virgin. He is also a registered sex offender. He pitches his tent in one of the very few places in Calusa, Florida (a city very much like Miami), where he is allowed, by law, to live: a patch of concrete underneath a causeway that happens to be more than 2,500 feet from where children might gather. With his name and face on the National Sex Offender Registry and a TrackerPAL GPS locked around his ankle, the Kid lacks most of the rights enjoyed by other citizens, not to mention access to dignity and love.