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NOBODY'S CHILD

Name: NOBODY'S CHILD
Author: Susan Nordin Vinocour
ISBN: 978-0-393-65192-8

A TRAGEDY, A TRIAL, AND A HISTORY OF THE INSANITY DEFENSE

by Susan Nordin Vinocour ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2020

A satisfying courtroom drama that hits the sweet spot between good storytelling and sharp legal analysis.

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A mentally ill grandmother’s desperate plight exposes a deep gulf between science and the law when it comes to the insanity defense.

For two days after her 3-year-old grandson died, Dorothy Dunn (a pseudonym) slept with the boy’s corpse, moving it on and off a heating grate hoping to maintain a lifelike body temperature. That and other unfathomable actions factored into the insanity defense Dunn’s public defender built after a prosecutor charged the “compliant and meek,” impoverished, black mother of five with second-degree murder. Debut author Vinocour—a clinical and forensic psychologist who had earlier practiced law and later served as an expert witness in Dunn’s trial before a largely white jury—evaluated the defendant and found her to be mentally ill. The author reconstructs the case in a chilling book that interpolates into Dunn’s tragic story a history of the insanity defense and famous related events, including the attempted assassinations of James Garfield and Ronald Reagan and the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Insanity defense laws vary by state, but Vinocour argues persuasively that the law overall lags far behind scientific research on mental illness. A widely used legal test of insanity is whether someone knows “right” from “wrong,” but mental illness is too complex for that standard, which implies falsely that “an intelligent or educated person can never be, legally, insane.” Though the author has changed many “identifying details,” making it uncertain that the events unfolded, as she writes, in Rochester, New York, and other pertinent facts, the story is unquestionably a page-turner, and revealing the ending would be a spoiler. It’s fair to say, however, that in this case, nobody wins—except perhaps for a prosecutor later elected judge after unironically billing himself as a defender of “the highest standards of the criminal justice system.”

A satisfying courtroom drama that hits the sweet spot between good storytelling and sharp legal analysis.

Pub Date: March 24, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-393-65192-8

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.