Worth reading

But not required .... everyone seems to be talking about this narrative-ish piece, "The Crime of His Childhood." 

It is mildly first-person. But it doesn't need to be.

The story is riveting. The story starts with the inciting event, as it were: An acid attack 40 years ago. The reconstruction of details in the lead are fascinating and horrific.

And then there is this big picture/nut graph. It tells the reader why they should read on:

It was the crime of my childhood, of another, rougher Park Slope, and in the end it would destroy a family. We didn’t know the Mieles, but I always wanted to know what happened, and what happened afterward — how they had held it all together, or not. I wanted to know what happened to the “crazy man,” and who he was. But most of all, I wanted to know what had become of that little boy.

The reader is hooked with that question: What happened to all those people, especially that little boy?