In the first few pages of "The Meaning of Matthew," Judy Shepard recounts a story that has been chronicled in countless other works over the course of the last 11 years: the grisly and disturbing tale of how her son, Matthew Shepard, was kidnapped, brutally beaten and left to die in a remote Laramie, Wyo. field for no other reason than because he was gay.
Although the mere existence of the book demonstrates tremendous courage on the part of Judy Shepard she reports the gory details of her son's murder in a detailed, descriptive narrative the work's true accomplishment lies in Shepard's nuanced presentation of her son, who she paints as a multifaceted human being and not solely a representative for a cause.
In fact, Shepard dedicates as much of the book to her son's life as she does to his death. Most of the first section of the memoir follows Matthew Shepard's struggles with the psychological effects of being a rape victim, including clinical depression and substance abuse problems.
The revelation of the more complicated and messy period of Matthew Shepard's life highlights the hypocrisy of the media that covered his murder and the subsequent trial: In an effort to make Matthew Shepard a martyr and thus a more effective talking point for the entire LGBT rights movement journalists used his small-town background to depict him as a naive, helpless little boy.
With her work, however, Judy Shepard reveals that her son was anything but helpless, convincingly turning the public perception of Matthew Shepard on its head.
Although Shepard was barely above five feet tall, he was strong-willed, determined and ambitious, according to his mother's description. He was also overly-compassionate, which according to his mother, helped lead to his murder.
Judy Shepard's recitation of the events following her son's murder are also very illuminating. She provides fascinating background details about the trials of her son's murderers, while underscoring her narrative with subtle commentary on social issues like the death penalty and, most amazingly, even manages to show compassion for those who killed her son.
The final section of Shepard's book details her eventual entry into the world of political activism. Although she makes clear that she has always been somewhat politically minded she mentions several intensely intellectual arguments with her late son she had never been an active public speaker or chaired a civil rights group before his murder.
Shepard's description of her transformation into the civil-minded leader of the Matthew Shepard Foundation (an organization she co-founded with her husband to combat hate and promote social tolerance) ends her memoir on precisely the right note.
