Karen: A Brother Remembers

Frasier actor Grammer (So Far...) stuns with this devastating memoir about the murder of his younger sister, Karen. In 1975, 18-year-old Karen was raped and stabbed by a gang of teenagers while picking up her paycheck at a Red Lobster in Colorado Springs. Utilizing a stream-of-consciousness style, Grammer discusses how he felt irrationally responsible for the attack, flashes back to his and Karen’s childhood, and puts her death in the context of his life’s other tragedies, including the murder of his father and the early death of his maternal grandfather. One of the book’s core tensions is Grammer’s conflicting impulses to ensure Karen’s life is not defined by its violent end, and to convey the depths of devastation her murder caused. He stops short of endorsing his grandfather’s assertion that the family is “cursed,” while acknowledging the unfairness that “the worst of all nights in [Karen’s] life gets so much attention” as opposed to “her love, her insights, and her compassion.” Grammer’s tender portrait of his sister as a sensitive, intelligent soul goes a long way toward correcting the record, and his vacillation between rawness and composure on the page is enormously affecting. This is a gift to readers who’ve struggled with their own grief. Agent: Adam Griffin, Vault Entertainment. (May)