dolphinboy's Full Review: Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
Susie Salmon was a young girl, living in a nice suburban neighborhood. She tells us the story of when she was raped and murdered. Of course, such a story must be told from the Afterlife, as the narrator is, well, dead. The story has two main emphases: the ongoing and never-quite-completed investigation into the crime, and the massive ripple-effects of the crime upon the victim's family. The author, Alice Sebold, also has Susie describe an interesting version of Heaven.
George Harvey, the rapist/murderer, is interesting in just how uninteresting he is. Many stories of serial rapists and/or killers, in books or movies, depict the villain as a monster whom everyone should recognize as such. George Harvey, to those who do not know what he has done, comes off as boring, slightly eccentric, and even mildly pitiable or pathetic. The evil is well-hidden in this villain, who is slowly destroying himself as he quickly destroys the lives of his victims and severely damages the lives of their families. The reader, though, gets to peek inside the mind of this hidden wreaker of havoc and sower of agony.
The turmoil of Susie's family, following her disappearance, is pretty realistic, given my own personal experience with losing a family member, and from my work, as a child psychologist, with children and families recovering from traumatic losses. The shifting alliances, the drifting away and coming together, the emergences of hidden strengths and hidden flaws, and the conflicts, are all not uncommon.
Susie longs to stop the next rape, the next murder, the next storm of sorrow. She wants George Harvey, not so much out of revenge, but more to prevent more pain and suffering for another child and another family. But, she is, well, dead. That longing rang true for me, as I could imagine myself in her place, not being able to do much, if anything, while desperately wanting to intervene. Ms. Sebold has been in Susie's shoes, or one of her shoes, as she tells her own story of being raped, in her autobiographical book, Lucky.
The writing of The Lovely Bones occasionally gets slightly bogged down in detail, but is generally good, with a story that grips the reader quickly. The personable narrator, the credibility and complexity of the story, and the ease with which many readers will be able to see themselves reacting in the story as the characters do -- except George Harvey, I hope -- makes the occasional instances of excessive detail easy to overlook. Given that this was Alice Sebold's debut novel, it is a triumphant debut. If she can grow as a writer, and come up with more stories that are out-of-the-box like The Lovely Bones, we will be treated to some interesting reading material.
If you enjoy this book, try Hey, Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland (and if you already enjoyed Hey, Nostradamus, you will like The Lovely Bones).
Thanks to Tom (sleeper54) for the idea of citing Ms. Sebold's autobiographical book.
Sebold s mesmerizing and luminous first novel--a #1 national bestseller--builds a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, and even joy, following an u...More at Buy.com
Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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