Fault Line

Laurie Alberts

Description

In 1969 Kim Janik was a young man shining with promise—handsome, brilliant, studying at Harvard on a physics scholarship—and he was in love with Laurie Alberts, a troubled teenager from a wealthy Boston suburb. Twenty-five years later, when Kim’s naked and decomposing body was discovered on the Wyoming prairie, one photograph—that of the Harvard junior and the seventeen-year-old—was found in his abandoned car. This book is Alberts’s attempt to piece together what happened in between. An accomplished novelist, Alberts brings to her task the searching intelligence, clear-eyed candor, and narrative grace that have marked her previous books. She painstakingly recreates her turbulent relationship with Kim and traces the twisted course that led to his eventual ruin.

A story of obsessive love, societal upheaval, and the warring impulses of survival and self-destruction, Fault Line moves beyond the limits of the traditional memoir into the realms of biography and literary journalism. With interviews and letters, Alberts augments her lucid reflections in an effort to comprehend Kim’s life and death and her place in both. The result is a singular work that melds the inner and outer worlds with a seamless intensity.

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803203938
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Fault Line

American Lives Series series editor :Tobias Wolff

A ULT L I N E

Laurie Alberts

University of Nebraska Press  Lincoln and London

©2004by Laurie Alberts All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Interior text design by R. W. Boeche

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Alberts, Laurie. Fault line / Laurie Alberts. p. cm. — (American lives) isbn 0 803210655 (cl.: alk. paper) 1. Alberts, Laurie. 2. Novelists, American —20th century— Biography. 3. Alberts, Laurie —Relations with men. I. Title. II. Series. ps3551.l264 z466 2004 813.54—dc21 2003012628

Prologue

March1996

1969

1970

Winter1997

 1970–1971

Fall1971

 1971–1972

 1972–1973

1973–1980

1980–1984

March1997

1984–1988

1996–2000

1

5

11

31

47

53

67

81

97

109

123

141

145

153

Contents

This is a work of nonfiction. However, many names and locations have been changed to protect the privacy of those who knew Kim.

The author wishes to thank all of those who were willing to share their memories. Special thanks to Tom and Becky for patience and tolerance.

Fault Line