Nelson Gross led an outsized life--one in which he played many roles: father, brother, husband, politician, entrepreneur. When he was killed by a couple of teenagers in a botched abduction and robbery, the murder shook his family in predictable and terrible ways. For his daughter, Dinah Lenney, the parent of her own young children, the loss sparked a self-reckoning that led to this book, which is both a meditation on grief and a coming of age story...
This is a very deep and beautiful read. By the end of the book, I felt I personally knew the characters in her life. I especially loved Lenney's devotion to her children and her quest to make sense of the tragedy so she might offer them hope. There's some really beautiful scenes in the book and it's worth checking out.
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I so admire those who can write about the most (potentially) sentimental thoughts or ironies without a trace of melodrama. Families sustain and drain us: Lenney infuses her reportage with such personal detail, showing (not telling) how we hurt and love each other, fathers and sons and mothers and daughters -- and strangers. Lenney shows also how so many aspects of life are completely out of our control, not fair or explicable,...
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This book is woven with rich characters who jump off the page. Lenney gives you some insight into her remarkable curious and ever questioning mind about life, relationships, and her world and the people in it. A terrific study of human nature with a keen eye towards the minute detail that defines us all, within the structure of this ever inquiring memoir lies a murder story that had an impact upon a womans life and a generation...
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I'm not a fan of memoirs, but I happened to be in a bookstore when Dinah Lenney read a chapter of "Bigger Than Life"--was immediately hooked, purchased a copy--and was very glad I did. The book fulfilled all the promise of that chapter. Nelson Gross is a fascinating character. A child of divorce, Lenney captures the quest for her father's love with humor and unending self-awareness. His tragic murder, just as their adult relationship...
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The botched robbery and murder of the writer's father propels her into intelligent, compassionate, funny, unsparing examinations of family entanglements, her own role as mother, class issues, narcissism, inheritance, suffering, what we withhold from each other and what it is possible to reveal. The prose is penetrating, great hearted, and deals with grief, but the narrator is not sensationalistic, ever, and does not suffer...
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