Amazon.com Review
This stirring elegy for the author's murdered best friend has been praised by such writers as Harold Brodkey, Helen Vendler, and Harold Bloom--writers whom one doesn't usually associate with the true crime genre. Indeed, this is not a typical true crime book. The focus is not so much on the crime itself, as on the character of the murdered Asian American college student, Bibi Lee, on her relationship with Melanie Thernstrom, and on Melanie's intensely self-observing response to the tragedy. The style is that of stitched-together journal excerpts, remembrances, anecdotes, poems, and letters, which add up to such an abundance of details and impressions that some may find it overwritten, or at least overly long. Those who choose to surrender, though, to the unfolding process of the author's grief, will find much to admire and learn from--not only about the impact of a violent death, but about the nature of female friendship.