Review: Lucky — Alice Sebold

Posted on | August 16, 2008 | No Comments

In the early 1980s Alice Sebold attended Syracuse University. While a freshman at SU, she was brutally attacked and raped at night, by a stranger. That attack is where the memoir Lucky begins. Her description of the rape is a detailed, play by play that she worked to etch in her memory. The first chapter is so disturbing and gut wrenching that if written by someone else, may have made me put down this book. I had to fight the tears welling in my eyes to continue reading. The bulk of the memoir entails the aftermath of her rape. Her own before and after. Her two lifetimes. Sebold did intense research to include actual transcript quotes from court proceedings, her interviews with police and a flawless time line, which I believe is what pulls you through the murky depths to keep going, as she did.

In Lucky, Sebold focuses much attention to the role her rape plays in relationships. Not just romantic relationships, down the road, but every single human encounter she has. Her parents, her sister, her friends, boyfriends, classmates, campus security guards, employers…everyone. Even though she never hides the rape, the window of perception she provides made it clear to me how so many women choose to hide their own rapes. The drive to do the “right” thing never escapes Sebold, but she suffers the consequences long after she believes she’s moved on.

My only complaint about this book was that it seemed to end multiple times. I would get to a point in the story and feel as though it was wrapping up, then the next chapter would jump into another catalyst for action leaving me with that feeling of “And then…and then…and then.” As much as it annoyed me, it did serve to show that she, too, had that same feeling. Every time she closed a chapter in her life…something reopened it.

I thoroughly enjoy Sebold’s voice. This book opened my eyes to perspectives I would have never been able to glimpse.