Bigger Than Life: A Murder, a Memoir

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. 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 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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 03/21/2007
ISBN: 9780803229761
Pages: 236
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 8.84h x 5.86w x 0.87d

Review Citations: Booklist 03/15/2007 pg. 8
New York Times 04/29/2007 pg. 17