Diana stands before the mirror preening with her best friend, Maureen. Suddenly, a classmate enters holding a gun, and Diana sees her life dance before her eyes. In a moment the future she was just imagining - a doting wife and mother at the age of forty - is sealed by a horrific decision she is forced to make. In prose infused with the dramatically feminine sensuality of spring, we experience seventeen-year-old Diana"s uncertain steps into womanhood - her awkward, heated forays into sex; her fresh, fragile construction of an identity. Together with the sights and sounds of renewal, we experience the tasks of Diana"s adulthood: protecting her beloved daughter and holding onto her successful husband. An acclaimed writer and poet, Laura Kasischke has crafted a consciousness that encompasses the truth of a teenager"s world and the profound transformation of that world at midlife. Resonant and deeply stirring, "The Life Before Her Eyes" finds piercing beauty in the midst of a...