Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith

Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith
reviewed on + 63 more book reviews


Although it's terribly sad, I'm glad I read this book. It's good to hear his point of view, and I was surprised at the level of personal detail he was willing to provide. Truth is, that made it sadder, because they just seemed so normal. Small town kids who met young, married young, had many of the very typical conflicts and struggles of many young married couples, and a nasty breakup in a small town. Affairs, arguments, family members in the middle of all the drama, kids caught in the middle, on-again off-again with the marriage, yet as messy as it was I couldn't find anything about their story leading up to the tragedy that really seemed so out of the ordinary. Everyone you know has at least a few or more of the problems they had, and while there are some really sad and upsetting parts in each of their histories, it still seems inconceivable this young mother was capable of murder. The details were often uncomfortable and abrupt, but in all it was a very human book describing flawed but well-meaning people in a terrible small town tragedy. I still recommend it for a sort of insider understanding of what seemed an unimaginable crime.