Memorial Drive: a daughter's memoir, by Natasha Trethewey

This is a touching and emotional memoir by former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey. In this book she tells the story of her childhood, when she lived with her parents in her grandmother's home in Mississippi. The story takes a sad turn when her parents divorce and she moves with her mother to Atlanta where her mother remarries. Ms. Trethewey's stepfather emotionally abuses her for years before she realizes that he is also physically abusing her mother. This is not a year by year recounting of their lives; in fact, there are many years missing from the story. It skims over Ms. Trethewey's teenage years until she's 19 and her mother is shot and killed by her stepfather, who was recently released from prison. She writes a lot about how she left Atlanta after the trial with no intention of ever going back, but she eventually does move back to take a job at Emory University. It's then that she is given the police records from the investigation, which eventually leads to her telling her story in the form of a memoir. The book is very well-written, and it's a potent and frightening story; however, there is so much left out that it really left me wanting more information: for example, what happened to her father, half-brother, and stepfather (after he completed his sentence)? And what happened during those intervening years?