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THE EDGE OF MALICE

Name: THE EDGE OF MALICE
Author: David P. Miraldi
ISBN: 978-1-63388-632-2

THE MARIE GROSSMAN STORY

by David P. Miraldi ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2020

A superbly crafted nonfiction drama that transcends true-crime genre expectations.

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Pulse-quickening story of the horrific attempted murder of a Cleveland medical worker and her defiant quest for justice. With a seasoned storyteller’s panache, attorney Miraldi narrates the harrowing true-life tale of Marie Grossman, whose life was irrevocably altered in 1987 when she was victimized by a random point-blank shooting. The author’s strong narrative voice hooks readers from the beginning, as he demonstrates a natural dramatic and novelistic flair for setting and pacing, with more than a hint of Joseph Wambaugh and John Grisham throughout. Indeed, Grossman’s near-death story will stick in the mind well beyond the final chapter. While on a break from her job at the Cleveland Clinic, Grossman was parked outside a Burger King when she was confronted by two young men; one was Richard Thompson, who pulled out a gun and fired. The bullet tore through her lower jaw, leaving her permanently disfigured. Apart from her physical injuries, Grossman also had to face the long-term stress of a protracted court battle to not only bring her assailant to justice, but also—eventually—hold to account that particular Burger King franchise, which had been the site of a similar crime not long before Grossman was victimized. She took legal action against the establishment's management for lax security in a dangerous neighborhood. As readers may guess, she faced stiff resistance. Later, the narrative comfortably morphs into a tense, engrossing courtroom procedural. Miraldi switches effortlessly between points of view, in one chapter effectively reimagining Grossman’s traumatic experiences and then vividly re-creating her legal battles scene by meticulous scene later in the text. The author also turns in some appealing observational writing along the way, and despite the note of final vindication, it comes with an unanticipated twist. A superbly crafted nonfiction drama that transcends true-crime genre expectations.

Pub Date: April 15, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-63388-632-2

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Review Posted Online: May 5, 2020

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | TRUE CRIME

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Awards & Accolades

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151

Our Verdict

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New York Times Bestseller

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

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Awards & Accolades

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151

Our Verdict

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New York Times Bestseller

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- SEEN & HEARD
Book: Tim Allen Exposed Himself to Pamela Anderson

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NIGHT

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

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Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.