Bigger than Life

A Murder, a Memoir

Dinah Lenney author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Nebraska Press

Published:1st Jul '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Bigger than Life cover

An edgy memoir by a daughter of a murder victim, narrating her emotional journey after the death of her father.

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, 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. By turns funny and sad, frustrating and fulfilling, her candid memoir conducts readers through marriage and divorce, blended and broken families—and, finally, the kinds of conflict that infect the best of us under even the best of circumstances. In the end, Lenney leaves us with the sense that in spite of extraordinary events—as with most families—it is mutual forgiveness and love that lead us to empathy, acceptance, and the will to carry on.

"In one sense, [Lenney's] book can be seen as therapy, a way of purging a decade's worth of inner turmoil. But the story also explores a broader issue, the way the death of one man can affect the lives of many people... Not a typical 'survivor's autobiography,' but a deeply affecting one."-Booklist Booklist "Before his murder, Dinah Lenney's father was Bigger than Life but looms larger in death."-Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair -- Elissa Schappell Vanity Fair

ISBN: 9780803232679

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

248 pages