Bigger than Life: A Murder, a Memoir by Dinah Lenney

“On September 17, 1997, Nelson Gross, a one-time Senate hopeful, was kidnapped by three teenage boys and brutally murdered; with the money they stole from him, they purchased jewelry, clothes, and hubcaps. Bigger than Life is an account of the murder, written by Gross’s daughter, Dinah Lenney, an actor who lives in Echo Park. Although the abduction made national news, the book is less about the tragedy than about what such events do to the survivors. The subject matter is grim but the writing is anything but, as Lenney, with an artful layering of details and remembered conversations, brings her complex, confounding father back to literary life.”—Los Angeles Magazine

“In one sense, [Lenney’s] book can be seen as therapy, a way of purging a decade’s worth of inner turmoil. But the story also explores a broader issue, the way the death of one man can affect the lives of many people. . . . Not a typical ‘survivor’s autobiography,’ but a deeply affecting one.”—Booklist

“Before his murder, Dinah Lenney’s father was Bigger than Life but looms larger in death.”—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

“This affecting memoir ends on a note of grace as Lenney acknowledges her hard-won peace with her father’s memory and his murder. . . . Such transcendent realizations elevate Bigger Than Life . . . beyond an account of the bombastic life and brutal death of Nelson Gross to speak of life and healing found in the midst of tragedy.”—Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Dinah Lenney’s stirring memoir about the murder of her father and its aftermath has been featured on E! Online’s “The Books You Must Read: Picks for 2007” list. On Bigger than Life, reviewer Samantha Dunn writes, “[T]here is no abuse, drug use, crazy parents or even a hot Italian lover, just beautiful sentences, deep emotions and intellectual stimulation.” Click here for the full article.