#9
Title: Strange Piece ofParadise
Author:Terri Jentz
Publisher Farrar , Straus Giroux
Year: 2006
Genre: Autobiography/True Crime
Title: Strange Piece of
Author:
Year: 2006
Genre: Autobiography/True Crime
542 pages
+ Extremely detailed and interesting account
- Slow going at times, small print in hardback edition
In 1997, Terri Jentz and her bicycling companion "Shayna" were attacked in Cline Falls State Park near Redmond, Oregon. As they slept in their tent, an unknown assailant drove his truck on top of Terri, then attacked both young women with a hatchet. Fifteen years later, Terri returned to Oregon to investigate these events.
Some reviewers have faulted Jentz for what they see as repetition and a lack of editing. I believe that this criticism arises from an understandable misidentification of the book's genre. This is not a "true crime" story, in which it may be expected that the author would streamline events for a more concise narrative. Instead, it should be read as autobiography. At that, it is not autobiography in which the writing itself aspires to transparency; instead, the form of the narrative reitterates the preoccupations and mental state I associate with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Conversations are reviewed and details returned to multiple times. Small nuances are scrutinized and labored over. The theme of urgency and press to tell one's story recurs throughout. This is not to say that Jentz did not edit and highly structure this account. It's also clear that even at 542 pages of small type, the tale has been highly condensed and the emotion highly contained. Rather, I'm suggesting that reading Strange Piece ofParadise is very similar to listening to a friend (or psychotherapy client) over a long period of time, witnessing her striving to resolve a trauma born of inexplicable events.
Jentz, a highly effective and apparently quite counterphobic woman, does suppress emotion in the narrative, as she reports doing in her life. For me, the most emotionally engaging (and painful) sections of the book convey her deep longing for Shayna to join with her by witnessing their mutual experience, a testimony that the amnestic Shayna does not want to hear.
In 1997, Terri Jentz and her bicycling companion "Shayna" were attacked in Cline Falls State Park near Redmond, Oregon. As they slept in their tent, an unknown assailant drove his truck on top of Terri, then attacked both young women with a hatchet. Fifteen years later, Terri returned to Oregon to investigate these events.
Some reviewers have faulted Jentz for what they see as repetition and a lack of editing. I believe that this criticism arises from an understandable misidentification of the book's genre. This is not a "true crime" story, in which it may be expected that the author would streamline events for a more concise narrative. Instead, it should be read as autobiography. At that, it is not autobiography in which the writing itself aspires to transparency; instead, the form of the narrative reitterates the preoccupations and mental state I associate with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Conversations are reviewed and details returned to multiple times. Small nuances are scrutinized and labored over. The theme of urgency and press to tell one's story recurs throughout. This is not to say that Jentz did not edit and highly structure this account. It's also clear that even at 542 pages of small type, the tale has been highly condensed and the emotion highly contained. Rather, I'm suggesting that reading Strange Piece of
Jentz, a highly effective and apparently quite counterphobic woman, does suppress emotion in the narrative, as she reports doing in her life. For me, the most emotionally engaging (and painful) sections of the book convey her deep longing for Shayna to join with her by witnessing their mutual experience, a testimony that the amnestic Shayna does not want to hear.
Jentz manages a multidimensional portrait of Oregon, capturing both the state's terrifying and engaging aspects. In some ways, this parallels her experience of the "meticulous cowboy" who attacked her, and who inspires her anger and, at times, her compassion.
No comments:
Post a Comment