David Smith describes his marriage with convicted murderer Susan, his coming to terms with the tragedy that cost him his two young sons, and the painful healing process of putting his life back together. Reprint.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two innocent babies,
By
This review is from: Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith (Hardcover)
This book made me rather emotional. You learn about two teenagers who meet and fall in love. The young couple is David and Susan, and they both have a far from easy life behind them so far. Susan's parents had a violent relationship, and sometimes Susan's dad would threaten to kill Susan's mum. Three weeks after their divorce Susan's dad commits suicide, and a couple of weeks later Susan's mum remarries. Susan's new step-father sexually abuses her, and when her mum finds out, she decides to stay with her new man. Several members of Susan's family have committed or attempted to commit suicide, and some (like her father) have been too fond of alcohol.
Even though David's family background may not be as bad as Susan's, his life hasn't been too easy either. His father tried to commit suicide, while his mother was very religious. In the end David decides to follow his brother and move in with his grandmother. Another blow happens in his life while he is dating Susan: His brother Daniel dies. Because Susan is pregnant, Susan's mother presses on and the young couple marries two weeks later. After reading the book and some additional information, I am sitting with the impression that these two should never have started a family. They were far too immature and their troubled background made things even worse. They fight a lot and both have extra-marital affairs. David seems to have big problems in sticking to one woman at the time. Susan's second pregnancy is a tough one, and David seems too immature to face it. He finds new love with Tiffany, and instead of staying with his pregnant wife and baby Michael, he spends his time with her. For a short while David splits up with Tiffany, and she becomes crazy and starts to keep David and his family awake at night. My opinion is that David does little to protect his family during this time. Shortly after Alexander's birth Susan and David parts again, and just over a year later; in a period of six weeks Susan has four lovers: Her boyfriend, her boyfriend's father, Susan's stepfather and David. In the middle of all this there are two small innocent babies: Michael and Alexander. They are bystanders, while their parents try to figure out their lives. Their lives gets a very cruel and tragic end when their disturbed mother kills them. It wasn't difficult to get through the book, even though the narrative is of average quality. Still, the picture of these two innocent children and their father's story about their short lives, make this into a book it is very difficult to forget.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The fathers story,
This review is from: Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith (Paperback)
This is the Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina who pushed her car into the lake with her two little boys still strapped in their car seats. This version of the story is written by her husband and the father of the two boys. He tries to be fair and objective in the first person narrative, but he gets in his opinion on everybody involved including his in-laws and the media. He also reveals himself as a loving father, but a guy working two women at the same time. His wife Susan comes across as a kind of sexy but sick psychopath. According to David's story, she killed the boys so that the well-to-do son of a local business owner might be enticed to marry her. He had told her he didn't want a "ready made" family. Kind of like the lions killing the cubs to bring the lionesses into heat, only here the lioness does it herself. If she hadn't confessed, she probably would have gotten away with it, because nobody, including her husband, could believe she'd kill her two cute little boys. There was a lot of sexist sympathy on both sides of this case, but there's no getting around the fact that Susan Smith is a monster. The sad thing is the son of a business man guy probably would never have married her anyway. This is a quick and easy read, but somehow unsatisfying I think because the real depth of the story needs a larger point of view.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book,
By Funkee Monkee "Kristyn" (Hampton, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith (Paperback)
This is an incredible book. Instead of writing a book and claiming he was the perfect guy and he was the victim, David told it how it was (unlike Susan Smith's mother, who also wrote a book that basically blamed everyone but Susan and the Russell family). He admitted that he was at times a bad husband. Both he and Susan were immature in their marraige. He made mistakes. But, he and Susan were perfect parents. Which makes this case all the more puzzling.Why would Susan murder her two boys like this?! I get so angry. At 14, no one my age understands how I feel. All the way through this book, I kept having to stop and ask myself WHY. WHY didn't she give MIchael and Alex to David. WHY didn't she tell anyone that she didn't want those babies anymore. WHY did she drown them? WHY did she let their bodies rot for nine days?! I sympathize for David. It's happy to report that he has a new wife and two more kids (Savannah and Nicholas), but imagine that, everytime one of your kids do something, everytime something new in a tabloid or the mail shows up about the case, the facts come hurling back to you. David, you are one strong man!!!
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