Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder

The best feature of Melanie Thernstrom's work is that she truly establishes Trang Ho and Sinedu Tadesse as separate individuals. This is both responsible and vital journalism because the murder-suicide left Trang forever linked with Sinedu in a manner that, as Thernstrom comprehensively illustrates, was gross revisionism from reality. Trang was not Sinedu's lover, not her best friend, not someone who deserved to be murdered for refusing to pretend to be either of those things in order to placate a deeply disturbed person, and showing that Trang was a brilliant, complicated person in her own right is a great service to both her memory and her living friends and family. But Thernstrom also shows why Sinedu had so many psychological and social problems that she couldn't overcome (and kudos to the author for including the 1992 sequence where Sinedu tries to enter a creative writing class taught by her, and Thernstrom proceeds to blow her off and later admits she felt better to be away from Sinedu's presence; this is the kind of unflattering honesty more non-fiction writers would benefit from allowing) and makes it clear that many people failed her, to the extent that they could have helped before her psyche melted down inside her. For the rest of the book in no particular order: Sinedu's family are contemptible, Harvard's handling of mentally ill students is pathetic but unfortunately didn't seem even at the time to be unusually incompetent in the college area, some of the material tying in other Harvard criminal matters to this case doesn't really fit into the book's larger issues, and Thao is one of the most heroic women ever in print. 4/5.

Enen though I read this book in only two days, I felt that it read more long an extremely long newpaper article and not a book at all. I felt that it lacked detail and emotion. I felt that most of the book looked back on Harvard itself and it's History of covering up things and looking the other way and only offering a deaf ear when it comes to the murder/suicide or the other suicides before. I can understand how lost sinedu must have felt, but murder and suicide, she must have really lost her mind and been in a deep, deep depression. The one thing that I did make sure was to make a mental note that I will not allow my chilrden to go to Harvard EVER!!! I wouldn't care if they got a full, free scholership. I would rather work hard everyday to put my child in a different school. Harvard just seems to crooked in its ways. The seem more interested in keeping their reputation in check, than the walefare of their students. How sad. I think if every Harvard student were to read this book and see just how crooked Harvard can be and that they only care about them selves, I bet they will all transfew out. If it wasn't for all the students their wouldn't be no Harvard. You can bet this is one book Harvard isn't offering in the school library. If you are looking into colleges or have children that will someday this book is a good way to learn avout Harvard that isn't on the brochure and they deffiently wont be confessing. Halfway Heaven Diary of a Harvard Murder (doesn't exactly read like a diary either) is not like the true crime books that I read daily, but it will make you think about who your friends are, your roomates are, and the school you attent.

I remember when this happened, but didn't know anything abpout it.

This book is perfect in story sequence and I also got signature of the author too.😅

This book was very sad.

The book was in good condition but it was forever before it was mailed out. There was no order number to follow where the book was or to estimate when it would be delivered.

This is a journalist's account of a tragic murder/suicide at Harvard in 1995. The story is a fascinating insight into four contrasting cultures - the ex-patriot Vietnamese society of Trang Phuong Ho, the victim, the austere Ethopian culture of the perpetrator, Sinedu Tadesse, our own privileged and frequently xenophobic country and the rarefied and elitist world of higher education. Trang's death is obviously maddeningly senseless and deprives us all of a talented and admirable young woman. Nevertheless, I found Sinedu's story equally agonizing. Her overwhelming loneliness and alienation are wrenching to read. On the one hand, you desperately wish that someone would reach out to her. On the other, you can appreciate how offputtingly needy she was and sympathize with Trang's decision to break away from Sinedu'e smothering affection. Thernstrom does a particularly good job of investigating Sinedu's heritage, and the picture is unbearably pathetic.The book does have its flaws. Thernstrom inserts herself far too much into the story. Her own experiences at Harvard were more distracting than helpful in setting in the context, and frankly seemed unnecessarily self-indulgent. It left me with a niggling sense that Thernstom was capitalizing on the tragedy rather than objectively reporting it. Similarly, I thought she made way too much of the fact that the administration wasn't anxious to cooperate with her story. Aside from the obvious liability issues, it seems clear that Thernstrom made it obvious that she was looking to point fingers. I personally thought she was overreaching in suggesting that this was a tragedy that should have been avoided. While colleges could no doubt do a better job of tending the psychiatric health of their students, this was in many ways an unusual confluence of events that doesn't accurately reflect typical scenarios that colleges should be anticipating. These quibbles aside, however, the book is a solid piece of journalism and a fascinating read.

This is a story to which I keep returning. The characters are complicated, and yet realistic. As an academic, I understand the fine line between ambition and madness and could relate to both characters. The murder/suicide of two young ambitious and in their own way disturbed girls takes second place to the role of Harvard as an overbearing and very image cautious university. The plot struck a cord, and lead me to understand the extremes of hard work, desperation and limits. I recommend it to everyone who is aware of their own limitations.