Terri Jentz

Extremely detailed and interesting account

- Slow going at times, small print in hardback edition

In 1997, Terri Jentz and her bicycling companion "Shayna" were attacked in Cline Falls State Park near Redmond, Oregon. As they slept in their tent, an unknown assailant drove his truck on top of Terri, then attacked both young women with a hatchet. Fifteen years later, Terri returned to Oregon to investigate these events.

Some reviewers have faulted Jentz for what they see as repetition and a lack show more of editing. I believe that this criticism arises from an understandable misidentification of the book's genre. This is not a "true crime" story, in which it may be expected that the author would streamline events for a more concise narrative. Instead, it should be read as autobiography. At that, it is not autobiography in which the writing itself aspires to transparency; instead, the form of the narrative reitterates the preoccupations and mental state I associate with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Conversations are reviewed and details returned to multiple times. Small nuances are scrutinized and labored over. The theme of urgency and press to tell one's story recurs throughout. This is not to say that Jentz did not edit and highly structure this account. It's also clear that even at 542 pages of small type, the tale has been highly condensed and the emotion highly contained. Rather, I'm suggesting that reading Strange Piece of Paradise is very similar to listening to a friend (or psychotherapy client) over a long period of time, witnessing her striving to resolve a trauma born of inexplicable events.

Jentz, a highly effective and apparently quite counterphobic woman, does suppress emotion in the narrative, as she reports doing in her life. For me, the most emotionally engaging (and painful) sections of the book convey her deep longing for Shayna to join with her by witnessing their mutual experience, a testimony that the amnestic Shayna does not want to hear.

Jentz manages a multidimensional portrait of Oregon, capturing both the state's terrifying and engaging aspects. In some ways, this parallels her experience of the "meticulous cowboy" who attacked her, and who inspires her anger and, at times, her compassion. show less

Terri Jentz, the author, was on a cross-country bike trip, with her Yale roommate, in 1977, when the unspeakable happened: while camping in a tent, in the Oregon desert, a man drove a pick up over their tent and attacked them with an ax. No one was ever charged with this horrific crime. Fifteen years later, Jentz returns to the small town where the event happened and starts doing some sleuthing herself. She makes some incredible discoveries. This is a solid true-crime tale. It could have show more used a little more editing but that is a minor quibble. Worked well on audio too. show less

In 1977, Terri Jentz and her college roommate decide to bike across the US, starting on the West Coast. While tent camping in an Oregon state park, they are brutally awakened by a man who runs over them in a pickup truck and attacks them with an axe. Both girls survive, but no one is ever arrested for the crime. Yet many locals are convinced they know who did it. So why wasn't he ever convicted?

I've got mixed feelings about this one. I was age seven at the time this crime occurred, so I have show more no memory of it hitting the national news, though it did. I can't imagine being the victim of something so horrific, for no discernible reason, so I sympathize with the author. Not having found justice has to be over-the-top frustrating, esp. when so many paths point toward one person being guilty. Yet there was something about the writing that bothered me, something that I can't exactly explain or put my finger on. The retelling and the search for justice almost dragged on too long, if that's possible. And I just now realized that I listened to an abridged version, so I'm not sure how I would have felt had I read an unabridged account. Oh, and the reader of this audiobook had a lisp, which I eventually got used to, but which was distracting nonetheless. There's no doubt that someone out there got away with attempted murder. I just hope all those involved can eventually find closure. show less

At the age of 20, the author and a college room-mate decide to bike across America. On the seventh night of their trip, they are attacked as they are sleeping in their tent in an Oregon park. Someone drives over the tent, the proceeds to attack the two women with an ax. The perpetrator was never tried or convicted.

Fifteen years later, the author begins a quest to solve the crime and to discover truths about herself. She returns to Oregon and, with the help of some of the local police, of show more victims' advocates and of citizens in the small town where the attack took place, she pieces together the story of what happened that night and since.

This was the kind of book I carried with me figuratively as well as literally. I couldn't stop thinking about Terri Jentz and her quest until I had completed the book. The book is a great mystery/crime story. And, it also looks at how a horrifying event can touch the lives of many people, some of whom weren't even directly involved in it. It looks at violence against women, at justice and at the universal need for closure.

I was fascinated by both the true crime story and the inner seekings of the author. show less