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The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox (2011)

by Nina Burleigh

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856314,087 (3.45)9
Sociology. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:Award-winning author and journalist Nina Burleigh's mesmerizing literary investigation of the murder of Meredith Kercher, the controversial prosecution, the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Amanda Knox, the machinations of Italian justice, and the underground depravity and clash of cultures in one of central Italy's most beloved cities.

The sexually violent murder of twenty-one-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on the night of November 1, 2007, became an international sensation when one of Kercher's housemates, twenty-year-old Seattle native Amanda Knox, as well as her Italian boyfriend and a troubled local man Knox said she "vaguely" knew, was arrested and charged with the murder. When Perugia authorities concluded that the murder was part of a dark, twisted riteâ??a "sex game"â??led by the American with an uncanny resemblance to Perugia's Madonna, they unleashed a media frenzy from Rome to London to New York and Seattle. The story drew an international cult obsessed with "Foxy Knoxy," a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogynyâ??the dark side of Italyâ??or participated in something unspeakable.
The investigation begins in the old stone cottage overlooking bucolic olive groves where Kercher's body was found in her locked bedroom. It winds through the shadowy, arched alleys of Perugia, a city of art that is also a magnet for tens of thousands of students who frequent its bars, clubs, and drug bazaar on the steps of the Duomo. It climaxes in an up-close account of Italy's dysfunctional legal system, as the trial slowly unfolds at the town's Tribunale, and the prosecution's thunderous final appeal to God before the quivering girl defendant resembles a scene from the Inquisition.
To reveal what actually happened on that terrible night after Halloween, Nina Burleigh lived in Perugia, attended the trial, and corresponded with the incarcerated defendants. She also delved deeply into the history, secrets, and customs of Perugia, renowned equally for its Etruscan tunnels, early Christian art, medieval sorcerers, and pagan roots.
A New York Times bestseller, The Fatal Gift of Beauty is the thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female eroticism. By including the real story of Rudy Guede, it is also an acute window into the minds and personalities of the accused killers and of the conservative Italian magistrate striving to make sense of an inexplicable act of evil. But at its core is an indelible portrait of Amanda Knox, the strangely childlike, enigmatic beauty, whose photogenic face became the focal point of international speculation about the shadow side of youth and freedom.
From the Trade Paperback e
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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
I admit it. Until I read this book, I thought this girl was guilty. After reading this a an a full supporter of Amanda Knox. For one reason, Italy was set against her and she was arraigned again (and found guilty again) even though her appeal overturned the first ruling. This is about being in the wrong place at the wrong time--namely Italy during a murder case. It is well written, thoroughly researched, and sets the tone of what Amanda Knox is really like--an awkward college girl with social mishaps. She reminds me of myself. At times I felt the author was showing off some of the depths she dug to give us the but I thought it was a good perspective of the facts. Amanda was unjustly accused and found guilty of a crime she obviously didn't commit.

I just don't know how she was found guilty again this case again. I am not sure how she was sentenced AGAIN. I eventually someday she will be free before her max sentence. ( )
  Sandra_Berglund | Mar 30, 2016 |
I enjoyed the writing style as I knew I would as I've enjoyed Burleigh's journalism in the past. She obviously did a lot of research for this book. I think Burleigh made a great case that Knox was innocent and the police were bumblers. How much of this is true I don't know, but it must have been a nightmare for everyone involved.

I suppose the reason I gave the book only 3-stars was because I really disliked Knox, I know I know that has nothing to do with Burleigh's writing, but its my review, I can say what I want.. I'm sure she is innocent, and have no idea what I would have done if I had gone to Italy for college as she did. I'm double the age she was at the time, but I still disliked her. I'm sure she has matured and gained a lot of wisdom. I assume that Burleigh is spot-on, the fact that she was American, young and pretty had everything to do with the way the media reacted to the story. ( )
  sgerbic | May 19, 2015 |
It is difficult to get past the title of this well-researched take on the story of the infamous American foreign exchange student, Amanda Knox, who went to Italy in her junior year of college in 2007 to study languages and ended up convicted of the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. I don't dispute that if Knox had been 100 pounds heavier, eight shades darker, and covered in boils, her murder trial would not have been the media sensation it was. The title is also a quote describing Italy itself. I just don't agree with perpetuating society's prejudices in this manner. It pissed me off that the whole time I was reading the book I kept reevaluating Knox's aesthetics. Her physical appearance is not the point, or at least, certainly not the only one.

I prefer The Fatal Gift of Beauty to Angel Face (I'm comparing the books, not the titles, which seem equally dramatic). The latter is much more biased, and written in a way less enjoyable for the reader. In terms of prurient fun, Knox's own memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, is the best.

I'm pretty Knoxed out at the moment, but eventually I will make my way around to Raffaele Sollecito's (Knox's boyfriend and codefendant) book and see what he has to say. ( )
  dysmonia | Apr 15, 2014 |
It is difficult to get past the title of this well-researched take on the story of the infamous American foreign exchange student, Amanda Knox, who went to Italy in her junior year of college in 2007 to study languages and ended up convicted of the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. I don't dispute that if Knox had been 100 pounds heavier, eight shades darker, and covered in boils, her murder trial would not have been the media sensation it was. The title is also a quote describing Italy itself. I just don't agree with perpetuating society's prejudices in this manner. It pissed me off that the whole time I was reading the book I kept reevaluating Knox's aesthetics. Her physical appearance is not the point, or at least, certainly not the only one.

I prefer The Fatal Gift of Beauty to Angel Face (I'm comparing the books, not the titles, which seem equally dramatic). The latter is much more biased, and written in a way less enjoyable for the reader. In terms of prurient fun, Knox's own memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, is the best.

I'm pretty Knoxed out at the moment, but eventually I will make my way around to Raffaele Sollecito's (Knox's boyfriend and codefendant) book and see what he has to say. ( )
  dysmonia | Apr 15, 2014 |
Burleigh's book is a careful, thorough, and insightful examination of the Knox investigation and trials. Her discussion of the history and culture of Italy, and specifically Perugia, is fascinating. She notes that the Italian criminal justice system is different from the U.S. system, but more importantly, her analysis places it in detailed context. She refers to Perugia's long history, its ancient pagan culture, its isolation, its location as an important freemasonry center, and other factors essential in the consideration of just how the crime, the investigation, the media coverage, and the verdict and sentencing happened.

At one point, late in the book, Burleigh says this: "The Perugians didn't know what to make of this unusual, slightly damaged girl with the inappropriate emotional responses, whose overconfident exterior masked a person with a deep aversion to conflict. Needing to solve the high-profile crime, they made a deduction about her and extracted a statement that put her at the scene. Everything in the investigation evolved from that...."

Two things occurred to me as I was reading this book. One is that if I had been in Amanda Knox's place, at age 20, with what I knew and how I acted at that age, I'd have looked pretty damn culpable myself, and I'd have been vulnerable to psychological coercion. It wouldn't have taken much pressure to make me wonder if what I thought was reality was actually completely wrong. And a public discussion of my short, problematic personal history wouldn't have helped at all.

The second thing that occurred to me was the remarkable similarity in process and outcome the Knox trial has with the McMartin Pre-School case and its many related iterations throughout the U.S. This 1980s and 1990s phenomenon of widespread suspicions of systematic, criminal pre-school child abuse, including Satanic ritual and sexual crimes, resulted in a panicky series of charges, arrests, and accusations. A number of people were convicted of heinous crimes, and despite the subsequent debunking, not to mention the alleged victims' recanting when they got older, a few people are still in U.S. prisons because of it. Was it because the American justice system was stupid or archaic? Were all the investigators and prosecutors stone-cold inquisitors? No. But a compelling theory got strong-armed into spurious "fact", and it took years for logical, fair, and fact-based investigation to prevail.

I think Amanda Knox got caught up in a similar civic and judicial storm, one that creates its own logic and is not easily remedied. ( )
2 vote Magatha | Oct 1, 2011 |
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Sociology. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:Award-winning author and journalist Nina Burleigh's mesmerizing literary investigation of the murder of Meredith Kercher, the controversial prosecution, the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Amanda Knox, the machinations of Italian justice, and the underground depravity and clash of cultures in one of central Italy's most beloved cities.

The sexually violent murder of twenty-one-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on the night of November 1, 2007, became an international sensation when one of Kercher's housemates, twenty-year-old Seattle native Amanda Knox, as well as her Italian boyfriend and a troubled local man Knox said she "vaguely" knew, was arrested and charged with the murder. When Perugia authorities concluded that the murder was part of a dark, twisted riteâ??a "sex game"â??led by the American with an uncanny resemblance to Perugia's Madonna, they unleashed a media frenzy from Rome to London to New York and Seattle. The story drew an international cult obsessed with "Foxy Knoxy," a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogynyâ??the dark side of Italyâ??or participated in something unspeakable.
The investigation begins in the old stone cottage overlooking bucolic olive groves where Kercher's body was found in her locked bedroom. It winds through the shadowy, arched alleys of Perugia, a city of art that is also a magnet for tens of thousands of students who frequent its bars, clubs, and drug bazaar on the steps of the Duomo. It climaxes in an up-close account of Italy's dysfunctional legal system, as the trial slowly unfolds at the town's Tribunale, and the prosecution's thunderous final appeal to God before the quivering girl defendant resembles a scene from the Inquisition.
To reveal what actually happened on that terrible night after Halloween, Nina Burleigh lived in Perugia, attended the trial, and corresponded with the incarcerated defendants. She also delved deeply into the history, secrets, and customs of Perugia, renowned equally for its Etruscan tunnels, early Christian art, medieval sorcerers, and pagan roots.
A New York Times bestseller, The Fatal Gift of Beauty is the thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female eroticism. By including the real story of Rudy Guede, it is also an acute window into the minds and personalities of the accused killers and of the conservative Italian magistrate striving to make sense of an inexplicable act of evil. But at its core is an indelible portrait of Amanda Knox, the strangely childlike, enigmatic beauty, whose photogenic face became the focal point of international speculation about the shadow side of youth and freedom.
From the Trade Paperback e

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