A Return to the American West To Investigate My Attempted Murder

This is a wonderful book. Although it is very lengthy and goes into minute detail with regard to the author's quest to understand the crime perpetrated against her and her former friend, I never became bored by the minutiae. On the contrary - I was fascinated the entire time. It is a story about crime but also about friendship and self-discovery and small-town American life. Jentz's writing has a certain poetical style to it that I found very appealing and engaging. This is a book that will resonate with the reader for a long, long time. I highly recommend this book.

Terri's account of the horrific crime goes beyond the physical aspects of her injuries and describes the psychological scars she and her partner are left with. So many times we read the morbid details of a crime, but Terri doesn't glorify what happened. Instead her story is about the emotional trauma the struggles with and the question of "why me." She discovers how other people were affected in ways she never imagined and the inner strength she found within herself to come face-to-face with her tragedy. Her style of writing is brilliant. I just finished Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" (for the second time) and found Terri's story equally thrilling but yet so much more emotional. I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Terri is fabulous and can't wait for her next book!

At times both exquisite and excruciatingly painful, Ms. Jentz's journey is a marvel - a true American story of a female hero who is baptized by fire to become an avenging angel not just for herself, but for the women and the community which has suffered from complacence and a system that tolerates violence against women. Ms. Jentz not only examines the existence of evil in a vile human being, but combats it. She is brave, brilliant and bounding in the insights that can come only after one has truly walked through fire. And this is not a fictional character, this is Ms. Jentz's life.

Terri Jentz gives the reader an enlightening glimpse into the aftermath of survival. As she acknowledges in her book, crime victims are usually a blip in the headlines. Her journey is well-told and gripping. I felt an urgency to keep turning the page to see what happens next.

My stomach is still churning from reading the vicious review of this book by "augustabookman." What arrogance! What hatred! This is one sicko review. No author deserves this. I only hope Terri doesn't read this disgusting diatribe against her. The book is amazing and moving and hopefully healing for those involved. Get it. Read it. You will not be sorry!

I couldn't believe how poorly edited this should-have-been-gripping book was. It SHOULD have been like Truman Capote...except all the more powerful, as it wasn't written by an outside observer, as Capote was. Who was Jentz's editor? This book went on an on and repeated itself endlessly....draining the immediacy of what had clearly had the potential of being a riveting story. As Jentz interviews countless people who all draw similar conclusions, not to mention the hundreds of mentions of the ponderosas...ZZZZzzzz.

Sadly, a real disappointment.

I admire the courage of author Terri Jentz and others in her quest for the identification of her "hatchet cowboy". She did the investigation that the community of Redmond,Oregon should have done 29 years ago. It is chilling to think that her would-be killer is still walking the streets.

Carrad, an avowed conservative, trashes Terri Jentz, an exceptional woman, saying that she would do well to emulate her former Yale roommate, also victimized in the attack, who became a doctor and mother. Should we criticize as selfish every female author who is not a mother?

Carrad portrays Jentz as a privileged show-off, saying she "would benefit greatly from spending a month or two helping others in a homeless shelter, VA hospital or African country to learn what real hardship is." That's BS. Terri Jentz has volunteered with many organizations for crime victims, battered women, etc. Carrad may not like Jentz's feminist perspective. The fact remains that the book is awesome. Readers would get a more accurate perspective on the book by reading the rave reviews in The New York Times and other publications.

The book is a compelling memoir /true crime detective story. Some reviews said it was too long but the excellent writing and character descriptions make it interesting all the way through. The book does digress into Oregon's legal code, small town sheriffs, revenge, crimes against women, etc. but it's all worthwhile to read.

If you don't buy it, check it out of the library!

Terri Jentz simultaneously explores America, searches for herself, and looks for her attempted killer. The book is full of compassion and humanity, and is far from the vengeance-fest one might expect. Can't wait to see the movie.

I was entralled with the book 'Strange Piece of Paradise'. The writing was beautiful and stylistic which makes for the best of true crime. I, however, only made it to about 350 pages whereupon I felt it was dragging on a bit much. I had one thought while reading the book and unless it was brought out explicitly and that I happened to miss it, is MS Terri Jentz a lesbian? Is that the true reason her friend started to pull away from her on the bike trip? Perhaps her friend was straight and could not managed the emotional pressure of having to reciprocate. This leads to the idea that perhaps Dirk Durhan observed from the shadows something between the two women that he deemed unnatural and thus decided to take matters into his own hands. He obiviously demonstrated much hatred to women in general. If this was the case this incident was truly a hate crime in the same vein as Matthew Sheppard.

If I have misread the undertone of the book, sorry. If Terri is indeed gay she should be very proud of who she is a carry that fact into this brutal confrontation of her attempted murder and her attempted healing to become a whole free human being.