Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace
It wasn’t supposed to happen to someone like her—a middle-aged writer acclaimed for Riding in Cars with Boys (1990), which was made into a movie starring Drew Barrymore. Yet she was raped in her own bed in her home in Mexico. It is a chilling story, and in this compelling, spiritually fulfilling memoir, Donofrio takes the reader through that terrible night and its aftermath. But this is more than a straightforward description of a crime; it is a story of healing and even, as the title indicates, grace. Donofrio was attacked at the time she was thinking about joining a monastery, and the rape made her reconsider not only her life but also her faith. Anyone who has been the victim of a crime will appreciate Donofrio’s honesty and sympathy, but her memoir is for everyone who appreciates a story well told. It is an unsparing but also hopeful account of evil, misery, and suffering, as well as joy, goodness, and forgiveness. Don’t run from the pain, she writes. She doesn’t. Instead, Astonished transcends it. --June Sawyers