The Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy

Blake (Center for Justice Reform, Vermont Law Sch.) explores the experience of heartbreak in its many forms in this mix of memoir and creative nonfiction. Blake was a law student at Stanford University when her teenaged cousin murdered a young boy. Her cousin, who lives with mental illness, was diagnosed as having a psychotic break and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Feeling surrounded by tragedies, Blake began collecting poems, quotations, clinical studies, and various other sources dealing with the subject of heartbreak. She draws upon this collection of materials, plus her understanding of the justice system, to process her family history, her personal life and experiences, her cousin, and American society at large. She describes the personal challenge of forming a relationship with her cousin and eventually facing her fears to visit him in prison. This introspective book covers some disturbing and unsettling ground, yet appropriately so because of the subject matter. Readers looking to explore the ideas of mercy and forgiveness will be given plenty to think about.