Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, and the Baby They Didn't Want - Hardcover

Most, Doug

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 096547335X ISBN 13: 9780965473354

Publisher: Specialty Pubns Div North Jersey, 1999

Synopsis

Looks at the lives of Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, the events surrounding Amy's pregnancy, and their decision to get rid of the baby

About this title

About the Author

Doug Most, formerly managing and magazine editor at The Boston Globe, is assistant vice president and executive editor at Boston University. In addition to The Race Underground, he is the author of Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid and the Child They Killed (St. Martin's True Crime, 2005). He has written for Sports Illustrated, Runner's World and Parents and his stories have appeared in Best American Crime Writing and Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Most takes a sensational news story that he covered for the Record, a New Jersey newspaper, and draws from it one fairly tired lesson: parents, especially suburban parents who think that their kids are fine, have to make sure that the lines of communication are open between themselves and their children. In 1996, two 18-year-old college freshmen, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, made headlines after they checked into a Delaware motel where Grossberg subsequently delivered a baby boy whom Peterson wrapped in a plastic bag and threw in a Dumpster. Most recounts these events and the trial that followed in clear journalistic style, but his account suffers because he was unable to interview Grossberg, Peterson or any family members. He provides an interesting description of the upper-middle-class New Jersey suburb where the two lived and offers a few well-worn theories as to why they didn't tell their families about the pregnancy or seek help: wealthy parents give their children luxuries but don't teach them values; Peterson's parents were divorced; Grossberg was afraid of displeasing her mother. But Most's reliance on a court transcript of an interview with Grossberg's mother leads him to speculate excessively about her possible bad parenting while neglecting the three other parents involved and giving short shrift to the moral culpability of Grossberg and Peterson themselves. Illustrations not seen by PW. 25,000 first printing; first serial to New Jersey Monthly and Delaware Today; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In 1996, after Amy Grossberg delivered a healthy baby boy in a motel room, her boyfriend, Brian Peterson, wrapped the infant in a garbage bag and threw him in a dumpster. For months, the young couple had denied the pregnancy, made appointments for abortions, and talked about how "it" had ruined their lives; when the time came, they handled the problem by getting rid of "it." Most, a reporter who covered the story and attended the court proceedings, presents his account objectively, careful to present the defense cases separately and to explain Grossberg's and Peterson's attorneys' strategies. He also includes information from experts who attempt to explain how two reasonably intelligent young people could commit infanticide and then claim they did nothing wrong. A recurring theme is almost as haunting as the crime itself: how could parents, counselors, teachers, and other adults have ignored Grossberg's pregnancy? With no one to speak for the victim, it's a question the author cannot answer. Engrossing and infuriating reading.?Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie Cty.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Specialty Pubns Div North Jersey
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 096547335X
• ISBN 13: 9780965473354
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 279