I just finished reading While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Wake-Up Call for Mental Health Care in America by Eli Sanders. It is the story of the murder of Teresa Butz in Seattle in 2009 and the trial and conviction of Isaiah Kalebu for that murder.
Sanders has done much research to provide detailed background of Teresa, her partner Jennifer, and Isaiah. The story builds to Jennifer’s testimony of the events of that night. The conviction of Kalebu doesn’t feel like resolution.
As the title indicates, there are many moments when there might have been intervention by mental health services. Except the commitment and the money did not support that. I found this aspect of the story particularly poignant as I finished the book around the time of the Florida school shooting last week. It’s a sad book. I don’t always care for epilogues, but I appreciated the one at the end of this book.
Eli Sanders won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing - his initial coverage of this story appeared in The Stranger, a weekly Seattle newspaper. Read his interview regarding the book in The Seattle Times.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Today Will Be Different
Remember Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I remember being ambivalent about that book, and yet…not enough to pass over this novel by the same author, Maria Semple: Today Will Be Different.
Basically, this book is one day in the life of Eleanor. She has middle-aged angst as a result of creative talent gone dormant, a son that she loves, but who puzzles her, and a marriage which has gone a tad stale. It doesn’t sound all that gripping until one thing after another pulls her in unexpected directions. Once I began reading it, I remembered Semple's sly humor and the spot-on descriptions of people, emotions, and situations.
Maybe because I feel a little off center right now, I really liked the character of Eleanor in all of her snarky reactions and crazy behavior. I liked that sometimes it was her internal dialogue, sometimes talking to herself, and other times talking to me, the reader.
I bought this book in print so that I would have something to read while at Highland Fitness Center. I’m probably being lured back into the world of print; however, for this book I recommend it. Part of Eleanor’s story is a graphic novel called the Flood Girls. The pages/frames that formed the basis of it are included in the print book (actual artist is Eric Chase Anderson).
For a more eloquent review: NY Times Review of Today Will Be Different.
Basically, this book is one day in the life of Eleanor. She has middle-aged angst as a result of creative talent gone dormant, a son that she loves, but who puzzles her, and a marriage which has gone a tad stale. It doesn’t sound all that gripping until one thing after another pulls her in unexpected directions. Once I began reading it, I remembered Semple's sly humor and the spot-on descriptions of people, emotions, and situations.
Maybe because I feel a little off center right now, I really liked the character of Eleanor in all of her snarky reactions and crazy behavior. I liked that sometimes it was her internal dialogue, sometimes talking to herself, and other times talking to me, the reader.
I bought this book in print so that I would have something to read while at Highland Fitness Center. I’m probably being lured back into the world of print; however, for this book I recommend it. Part of Eleanor’s story is a graphic novel called the Flood Girls. The pages/frames that formed the basis of it are included in the print book (actual artist is Eric Chase Anderson).
For a more eloquent review: NY Times Review of Today Will Be Different.
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