Sabrina Rubin Erdely's profile piece on Esther Reed (and her many other identities) was a poignant, tragic that took the story of someone currently in prison and implicit in a number of identity theft and fraud-related crimes and made it completely sympathetic. The lengthiest article we've read thus far for this course by far, "The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League" manages to stay wholly engrossing throughout its duration, and its even-handed tone while dealing with myriad controversial issues takes it to the next level into being a really fantastic article.
The lead is interesting because it doesn't take place chronologically near the beginning of the story, nor does it take place at the end. After the first part of the story, we're taken back in time, and from there, we move forward and eventually well beyond the point in time expressed in the opening. It takes us through some uncomfortable territory but always in a fascinating way.
I was especially moved by a bit near the ending: "To look around Brooke's hometown today — a once-proud textile town haunted by unemployment, methamphetamine
and teen pregnancy — is to glimpse what her future might have held, had she not vanished." It reminded me very much of the fantastic 2010 film Winter's Bone, which indeed had been flashing through my mind quite often while I read the article. The story doesn't end on a positive note, or a necessarily negative one – it just kind of hangs there. One girl is missing, one is found but in prison. Life goes on.
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