The Fact Of A Body

The Fact Of A Body

Adult nonfiction
"Ricky climbs the stairs after him. He only wants to watch
Jeremy play--later he will say this, later he will swear to it. But
the watching changes something in him, and from this point on it is as
if he is in a dream. He walks up behind Jeremy and hooks his forearm
around the child's neck, lifting him into the air. Jeremy kicks so
hard his boots fall off. Ricky squeezes.
Jeremy stops breathing."
You'd think a child molester and killer who never acquired as
much as a high school diploma and a writer with a Harvard law degree
would have little, if anything, in common. You'd think wrong. In The
Fact Of A Body: A Murder And A Memoir Alexandria Marzano-Lesnivich
shows readers that there's a lot of truth to the adade: things aren't
always as they seem.
The year was 2003. Marzano-Lesnivich was spending a law school
summer interning for a Louisiana law practice. Strongly opposed to
the death penalty from her childhood, she had sought out a firm that
sprcialized in preventing legal executions.
On the second day of orientation her group was shown a taped
confession of a child molester and murderer from the trial in which
he'd been sentenced to death. The firm had just had his sentence
commuted to life.
Something in Marzano-Lesnivich snapped.
"But I look at the man on the screen, I feel my grandfather's
hands on me, and I know. Despite what I've trained for, despite what
I've come here to work for, despite what I believe.
I want Ricky to die."
This epiphany haunted her. How could she be a lawyer if her
emotions clouded her judgement? In fact, after finishing law school,
she dropped that long worked for career path in favor of writing.
Years later she still had Ricky on her mind. She returned to
Louisiana to learn all the could about him and his story.
The Fact Of A Body juxtaposes Marzano-Lesnovich's memoirs with
Ricky's life story. It is compelling, fascinating, and impossible to
put down.
Truth can be much stranger than fiction.
On a personal note, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I
certainly did. I have to admit getting up well before sunrise so the
hubby could hunt made me a tad grouchy. Nothing three cups of coffee
and a good book couldn't cure. Then in the afternoon I was thrilled
to spend time my kids, Amber, Katie, and Adam, Amber's fiancée, Brian,
and my niece, Maggie. Supper was delish.
A great big shout out goes out to everyone I spent Thanksgiving with
and Joey cat who will be thankful today to get a little turkey meat.
jules hathaway




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