Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful consideration of a tragic event.
Review: This is a journalist's account of a tragic murder/suicide at Harvard in 1995. The story is a fascinating insight into four contrasting cultures - the ex-patriot Vietnamese society of Trang Phuong Ho, the victim, the austere Ethopian culture of the perpetrator, Sinedu Tadesse, our own privileged and frequently xenophobic country and the rarefied and elitist world of higher education. Trang's death is obviously maddeningly senseless and deprives us all of a talented and admirable young woman. Nevertheless, I found Sinedu's story equally agonizing. Her overwhelming loneliness and alienation are wrenching to read. On the one hand, you desperately wish that someone would reach out to her. On the other, you can appreciate how offputtingly needy she was and sympathize with Trang's decision to break away from Sinedu'e smothering affection. Thernstrom does a particularly good job of investigating Sinedu's heritage, and the picture is unbearably pathetic. The book does have its flaws. Thernstrom inserts herself far too much into the story. Her own experiences at Harvard were more distracting than helpful in setting in the context, and frankly seemed unnecessarily self-indulgent. It left me with a niggling sense that Thernstom was capitalizing on the tragedy rather than objectively reporting it. Similarly, I thought she made way too much of the fact that the administration wasn't anxious to cooperate with her story. Aside from the obvious liability issues, it seems clear that Thernstrom made it obvious that she was looking to point fingers. I personally thought she was overreaching in suggesting that this was a tragedy that should have been avoided. While colleges could no doubt do a better job of tending the psychiatric health of their students, this was in many ways an unusual confluence of events that doesn't accurately reflect typical scenarios that colleges should be anticipating. These quibbles aside, however, the book is a solid piece of journalism and a fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful consideration of a tragic event.
Review: This is a journalist's account of a tragic murder/suicide at Harvard in 1995. The story is a fascinating insight into four contrasting cultures - the ex-patriot Vietnamese society of Trang Phuong Ho, the victim, the austere Ethopian culture of the perpetrator, Sinedu Tadesse, our own privileged and frequently xenophobic country and the rarefied and elitist world of higher education. Trang's death is obviously maddeningly senseless and deprives us all of a talented and admirable young woman. Nevertheless, I found Sinedu's story equally agonizing. Her overwhelming loneliness and alienation are wrenching to read. On the one hand, you desperately wish that someone would reach out to her. On the other, you can appreciate how offputtingly needy she was and sympathize with Trang's decision to break away from Sinedu'e smothering affection. Thernstrom does a particularly good job of investigating Sinedu's heritage, and the picture is unbearably pathetic. The book does have its flaws. Thernstrom inserts herself far too much into the story. Her own experiences at Harvard were more distracting than helpful in setting in the context, and frankly seemed unnecessarily self-indulgent. It left me with a niggling sense that Thernstom was capitalizing on the tragedy rather than objectively reporting it. Similarly, I thought she made way too much of the fact that the administration wasn't anxious to cooperate with her story. Aside from the obvious liability issues, it seems clear that Thernstrom made it obvious that she was looking to point fingers. I personally thought she was overreaching in suggesting that this was a tragedy that should have been avoided. While colleges could no doubt do a better job of tending the psychiatric health of their students, this was in many ways an unusual confluence of events that doesn't accurately reflect typical scenarios that colleges should be anticipating. These quibbles aside, however, the book is a solid piece of journalism and a fascinating read.
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