I traveled to South Bend, Indiana, last spring, to hear Elizabeth Smart speak. It was a treat of a day, both the road trip and the chance to hear more angles on her ultimately happy story. You may also remember that we reviewed her book here. But what about her parents’ story? Bringing Elizabeth Home by Ed & Lois Smart starts a little slow. [...]
I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert on PTSD. But I suspect Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State, knows only slightly more than I do. In Untamed, Mireille Duval Jameson is kidnapped by resentful thugs. Miri’s Haitian father made good as a civil engineer in the U.S. Now he’s back in Haiti, where his wealth sticks out like a whale on [...]
Where were you on June 5, 2002? Myself, I was driving my kids to Crystal Lake, Illinois. “Look around at your new home town,” I told them. Elizabeth Smart was sleeping in her Salt Lake City bedroom when a man with a knife woke her up and demanded that she get out of bed and come with him. “Not [...]
