Pros: Moving story, some well written characters, beautiful descriptions.
Cons: Slow paced
The Bottom Line: Nice depictions of afterlife and many flawed (like real life) characters make this an interesting read but its not that great a book altogether.
deenaf's Full Review: Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
I had heard that Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones was a book NOT to miss. I had heard that this book is a rare occurrence, a first novel that is above all the rest. I had heard that this book is different, unique, and well written. I heard wrong and that is my opinion.
The Lovely Bones was a book club selection on Good Morning America this summer. It's been highly tauted as a great work. I must admit that I do read many of the fictional works on the New York Times Bestsellers List and I've read two Oprah Book Club selections. So, when I saw THIS selection as a "must read", I was hooked.
A few days later I was at BJ's Warehouse looking at the book and seeing the discounted price. I purchased it and was actually quite anxious to start reading it. Actually, I am always anxious to read a new book that I just bought. It's sort of like that first time you wear a new outfit or play your new album. It's got to be the right time, in the right light, with the right feel. That was last week.
You read right... last week. It took me a week to read this very short book. I could just never get taken it by it or taken in TO it. I found that I had to re-read passages and paragraphs and pages and chapters to keep getting into the groove of the subject at hand. Who was talking, who was being talked about and in what time/place we were in. I guess that's it... I just could NOT get a groove going in this book. I felt that it was disjointed, or more like I was reading it disjointedly. Was that the point Alice Sebold? Did I just not get it?
And the title, The Lovely Bones, was baffling me throughtout the story. It wasn't making sense to me and I kept waiting to figure out what the title meant! Is that wrong? Finally, the one payoff for me was the use of the phrase The Lovely Bones in the context in which it is meant, thus making sense for me, the title of the book! But I felt that it was a long time coming and I needed to understand the title in order to buy into the book itself.
DISCLAIMER -- REVEALING INFORMATION HERE ABOUT THE TITLE and PLOT.
These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections--sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent-- that happened after I was gone.
This statement made it all clear to me. The point of the story is the evolution of a family after devastating loss and how a family is repaired, if you can even use that word. Maybe a family isn't really repaired but bones grow around whatever scar tissue of some sort forms? Well, that is the way I see it, not necessarily the way it is intended by Alice Sebold is referrin but I'd like to think that this revelation of mine is somewhat on target as to the point of the book.
THE STORY
I must say that I absolutely loved the idea of a story that is told from the perspective of a deceased character. It is told as a story from a little girl's heaven and the maturation of her life in real time albeit in heaven, in death.
Susie Salmon, whose life this epic is about, dies at the hands of a pedophile living right next door to her own family. In and of itself this is timely being that the number of child murders and disappearances is on the rise in our nation. However, this story isn't really about Susie herself. It is about her effect on people, during her lifetime and afterwards, in death. It is about her family's coping mechanisms. It is about the demise of the family and the shattering of their dreams as a family unit. It is the story of each family members' destiny and how they were met and/or realized.
It is NOT a story of great sadness. One might think that this is a shame, being that it is the story of an unsolved murder of a child but it is deeper than that. Whereas Susie's death is quite sad (and stunningly written, Miss Sebold) it is more of a testament to life and the ruins that are left.
Susie's siblings face daily rumors and challenges as the left behind children. Susie's father is distraught and driven to find out answers that will never be found, sending him into a downspiraling journey of loss and later recovery. Susie's mother started out as a woman unsure of her life's choices and then whose daughter's death becomes her excuse for a temporary leave of rote life.
Susie's friends play a great role in this book. We see Susie's first "love", Ray Singh, grow up and mature. Ruth, a casual friend of Susie's, becomes the heroine of Susie's afterlife with her ability to channel Susie's spirit. Together, Ray and Ruth provide the memories of Susie's life and bring her back years later.
And then there is George Harvey, Susie's killer. He is by far scarier than Hannibel Lecter, Charles Manson, and Son of Sam put together because he is Joe Everyman. He is the quiet neighbor who waves hello and buys girl scout cookies at his front door. He is the neighbor who helps you shovel your driveway or jump start your car. He is seemingly harmless to the outside world but harboring severe mental problems that only he and his victims are aware of. Guess what? He can be anywhere and he seems to pose no threat to our children. That is how he thrives, in anonymity. That is how he strikes as well. He gains the trust of his victims over time and then takes them out in a fell swoop. He too is superbly written by Miss Sebold. Even when Susie knows what she is doing is wrong (going with Mr. Harvey), her boundless curiosity gets the best of her, thus ending her life.
Unfortunately, I did not feel that Susie's curious streak follows her to heaven. She watches the world from above with a common curiousity, as with any new situation, but she doesn't have that explorer trait anymore, that deeper curiousity that captured living spirit (as in her mother's poignant photograph).
THE PROBLEM AS I SEE IT
As I stated earlier, the premise of this book sounded so original to me. I found myself excited to read a book from a completely different perspective, that of a dead little girl. I was disappointed for the following reasons:
1- The book was all over the place in my opinion. There were no easy transitions between present day and flashback. It was hard at times to decipher where Susie was viewing the world from, was she above or was she amongst the living?
2- The story was ringing in my head as somewhat familiar... much like the storyline in the movie Ghost with Demi Moore. The Patrick Swayze character watches from amongst the living and is able to intercede when needed. Susie is the same... she is able to make her presence known to some. Additionally, Susie gets to embody a living person, Ruth, and show herself lovingly to Ray. That is precisely what happened in the movie. Patrick Swayze embodies Whoopi Goldberg so that Demi and he can feel the love again.
3- I know this is a cheesy one but I felt that I needed to have Susie's dad get complete confirmation of George Harvey's guilt. I felt cheated that he didn't. I also wanted him, selfishly I know I know, to die so that he and Susie can meet again and she can tell him that he was right all along about Mr. Harvey. I wanted so badly for there to be some rationale to Susie's father's breakdown. But sadly there wasn't.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I wanted so badly to like this book in its entirety. Once again, I set a high expectation level for my satisfaction only to be let down. There were things that I very much enjoyed about The Lovely Bones however. I loved Susie's Grandma Lynn and how she became the glue that held the family together. I liked Susie's sister Lindsey and how she managed to make a happy life for herself in the shadow of her sister's death. I didn't like Susie's mother but I think that we weren't meant to. I can imagine that there are probably women out there who can identify with her longing for life's passions without responsibility but I was not one of them. And lastly, I felt that Susie's brother Buckley was the most undeveloped character. He was a flat character from the start and I think he was used only as a crutch for the father. Again I ask, was that the point or did I miss it?
As I kept reading, I kept saying to myself, "when will this book end" knowing full well that I was in control. I kept wanting it to go my way but instead it went no way.... for me or my satisfaction level. The Lovely Bones touches on so many levels of belief both spiritually and mentally and shows us how fragile life, family, and relationships can be. The Lovely Bones was certainly original in the concept of being told in the deceased first person but given that its been done before (again, I mention the movie Ghost, I felt that it was simply an iteration of that movie, and not that good of one.
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