Customer Reviews

Bigger than Life: A Murder, a Memoir (American Lives)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 is evolving, is bitterly ironic--but Lenney's insight brings the relationship full circle and reassures us that connections are made, ties do bind. Read it in a single afternoon--and it's still with me.

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 fools gladly. There is no self pity or maudlin weepiness here. Full of deep feeling the prose is lively and energized. A wake up call to mind and heart, this book deals with tragedy yet is not tragic in tone, but packed with pleasure and pain. The writing is graceful and super lucid, relentlessly questioning what it means to be mortal and human.

Dinah Lenney's memoir of the murder of her father is well-paced and truly riveting. It draws you in and tells her story in small bite-size vignettes that each stand alone as short-stories that add up to tell a bigger story. It is a unique style of autobiography and it is hard to put down. Although the central premise is tragic, it is also sweet, at times funny, and always relatable. Her story is unique, and yet in many ways it is the story of anyone who has had a complicated relationship with one or both of their parents, which is all of us.

This book grabbed me from page one and I could not close it until I finished it. Dinah Lenney is a magnificent writer -- clear and truthful and observant. It's as good as "The Year of Magical Thinking."

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.

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, yet we find grace in small exchanges, in memories and talismans and trying every day. The murder, although central to the story, is not the whole story because it is Dinah and who she is, where she is and how she got there. I enjoyed spending the time with her, an author frank and compelling as she tells her story.

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 that follows. If you never read a memoir (any memoir for that matter) this is one that you must add to your library. If you read it over and over again you will find new nuances of character in its simplicity and you might even at the end begin to look at a portion of your life as a memoir. There is one in all of us!

This book is brave, funny, honest and insightful. The murder of Lenney's father is a jumping-off point for a post-mortem examination of her dysfunctional family, and in this sense it is about all messy American families and the pleasures and pain found therein. Lenney is all voice - she riffs and rants, deftly weaving a story that keeps you hooked. Her prose is a delicious, shiny candy shell for the softer, sweeter stuff within: her deep affection for her children, her husband, her trying first family and the father she struggled to know and love.

Several times I wanted to put the book down and start something different but I kept sticking with it. There are parts of the book that just drag and other parts that captured my full attention. I really couldn't rate this more than 3 stars. I have read other memoirs from the series "American Lives" and I liked them a whole lot more. I also have several that I have not read yet..so I will give them a try.

Great, honest, brave memoir, wonderful writer.
The chapter on Christmas is unforgettable.