Living Between Danger and Love: The Limits of Choice

By Kathleen B. Jones

Andrea O'Donnell did not fit what criminal justice experts call the "victim profile." The twenty-seven-year old women's studies major at San Diego State University was the director of the campus Women's Resource Center and a self-defense instructor. Nevertheless, in the early morning hours of November 5, 1994, she was brutally murdered. Her decomposed body was discovered in the apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, Andres English-Howard. In August 1995, he was convicted of first-degree murder. The night before he was scheduled to appear in court for sentencing, English-Howard hanged himself in his jail cell. Author Kathleen B. Jones, one of O'Donnell's professors, was particularly shaken by her death. In Living Between Danger and Love, she examines O'Donnell's death and what it has to say to all of us. She provokes readers to consider the irony that our ideas about choice might prevent us from imagining and discovering social relationships of intimacy where love and power are not in conflict

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813527449
• ISBN13: 9780813527444
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Provocative Book

This book was gripping and caused me to re-think my comfortable ideas about choice, power, and even feminist politics. Jones makes us reflect on who is a victim and who can be a good victim. Surely we wouldn't expect that feminists are also in abusive relationships?! Of course, we know that abuse crosses all SES lines, class lines, and more. However, this book sheds light on choice and abuse in an honest, painful way. I read this book immmediately after its publication and I couldn't put the book down. Jones is a great writer and weaves in theory within her personal reflection. She puts a face to the issue and by doing so causes people to talk about this issue more honestly. Disclaimer- The author was a professor of mine and I knew the SDSU student who was murdered.

A Book of Truths

This book is a pattern to the world. It tells you about the ways we lose ourselves and each other when we are busy being tough, polite and unattached. It is a sticky story about the things we are able to see when we are not self-absorbed. Overall the story pulls, twists and locks your muscles and that is a good thing. It gives everyone the chance to consider the importance of being flexible.

Excellent and thought provoking

Living Between Danger and Love is the kind of book that I continued to think about long after I read the final words. More than being about the murder of a college student by an abusive boyfriend, Jones questions the idea of choice. She overlaps stories from her own past with the events following the murder of a student in the department where she teaches. What results is a beatifuly written, thought-provoking book on love, choice and all the complexity that surrounds those things.

Gradaute Student at Columbia University

This is the kind of book that resonates with you way after you finish. The true stories are engaging and yet hauntingly sad. The images are strong and powerful. Jones evokes questions that keep popping into everyday stuff I do or subjects I am talking about. It makes me see and hear things slightly differently -- relationships,appearances, and the choices we make. Very nice.