Half a Life

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Half a life after he killed a girl riding her bike with his car as a teenager, the author delves into the meaning and consequences of that fateful day, and all the culpability, anguish, and regret that continue to penetrate his every thought.

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A book I don’t forget submitted by ccrose on August 26, 2019, 9:35pm Straus detailed a terrible accident. A senior in high school, almost to the end of school year, he drove friends for an outing at the beach. Without warning, a girl on a bike cut across the lanes full of traffic. He hit her. She died.
So painfully and carefully he tells this story, the external demands, go to her funeral, her parents face him, believing it was his fault.
The experience unhinges him, unable to think about college. His private shame was that he couldn’t say he hit her. He said she hit the car, riding erratically, made no sense.
The emotional impact was severe. Although he appeared ‘over it’ to friends and family, he was having panic attacks, unable to drive..
The inner struggle would not go away. He even spent his college study time researching detailed research on car/bike collisions. Still he told no one.
This experience caused PTSD. He couldn’t get better. I was impressed by his honesty that he just couldn’t say”I hit a girl with my car and she died.”
Three years after, he sought therapy.
The writing is so clean, laid out with care to keep in front of himself the need for healing.
Some readers may think he overreacted, exaggerated the mental damage. I believe the pain and suffering are a part of walking through the details, makes it so that he could accept what happened.