Tag Archives: alice sebold

Review: The Lovely Bones — the movie

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The Lovely Bones is a haunting novel. I was excited to see that it had been made into a movie and curious what it would turn out to be. I reviewed Lovely Bones in 2008.

Suzy Salmon -- The Lovely Bones (movie)

I finally watched it (Thank You Netflix). It was a tiny bit different from the book, but not in a bothersome way. The special effects they used to create Suzy’s Heaven were stunning. I think they did a fantastic job adapting it to film given that the book leaves much to the reader’s imagination.

I got the sense that some of those parts were a bit cheesey and asked hubby for his take. He hasn’t read the book. He said it was a little cheesey but not too much. I finally realized it was the sappy, dramatic music driving me bonkers. The images were powerful enough to deliver on their own.

Overall, I’d recommend the movie to anyone who has read the book and wants to see it. Just plug your ears when Suzy’s in her heaven and the music starts. ;)

Finish That Bad Book?

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Most book lovers feel compelled to finish reading a book no matter how boring, uninteresting, dense, or otherwise unlikeable it may be. I feel that way and have rarely just scrapped reading a book because I was struggling through it. Why? I think maybe it goes back to when we were being taught how to read, but I’d love to hear others opinions.

One of my favorite non-book blogs, Unclutterer,  recently had a post about clearing book clutter, specifically that book you just dread reading any more of.  The post was spurred by this Washington Times piece, “EDGE: Closing the Book on a Bad Read.”

The article suggests, on the advice of economist Tyler Cowen, that when you encounter a terrible read, you should give up and move on. The suggestion is from Cowen’s book, “Discover Your Inner Economist.”

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Cowen’s theory is that we shouldn’t waste our precious time (a resource) on reading a crummy book. “We should treat books a little more like we treat TV channels,” Cowen says. According to the times, Cowen polished off a book a day (wow!). I suppose his ultimate point is that our ROI  isn’t enough to warrant slogging through a book that sucks. I get that. I even believe that struggling through a book affects a person emotionally/psychologically on some level.

But should we really give up on that crummy book? Kelly Jane Torrence of the Washington Times writes, “Mr. Cowen thinks our education instills the belief that books somehow are sacred. Not to him.”

They are to me. I have given up on less than five books in my life and of the terrible ones I forced myself to read, I regret none of them. Maybe Cowen believes that we get nothing from reading a book we don’t enjoy, but I gain a sense of pride, accomplishment, and always expand my vocabulary, my understanding of character development, or plot.  Even pushing through a book I though was okay, like The Almost Moon, wasn’t something I regret or feel cheated by. I got to see a different side of an author whose other works I really enjoyed, how her style worked in some ways and didn’t in others in that type of story.

So what do you think? Is it worth your time to push through a book your don’t like or would you happily scrap an awful text for something more to your tastes?

Review: The Almost Moon — Alice Sebold

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I read Lovely Bones and Lucky in 2008. Sebold’s first two books had some similarities but were quite different in many ways. I really enjoyed them both, though Lovely Bones was my favorite of the two. I was excited when I found The Almost Moon on Glyde.com for under $5. I won’t spend too much on books anymore and I had really been wanting to read it. I’m glad I didn’t pay full price.

As is Sebold’s signature, The Almost Moon begins almost immediately with trauma. Helen Knightly suffocates her elderly, agoraphobic mother. She drags her around the house for a while, then calls her ex-husband for help. The begining of the story is intriguing, but Helen’s craziness kept me from being able to bond with her. I was annoyed with the broken pace in the first few chapters. As the story moves along, Sebold jumps between present and flashback to fill in the background of each character. She does this extremely well. It doesn’t interrupt the pace of the story.

I believe the goal of this novel was to show that, through a moment of insanity, Helen killed her mother whom she loved in a deep and twisted way. Her mother’s agoraphobia and general insanity ruined her childhood and eventually drove her father to suicide. There is mention that her love for her mother aided in the destruction of her marriage and in the destruction of her sense of self. However, I failed to find an iota of love. Perhaps I just couldn’t relate to Helen’s character. She seemed more addicted to trying to make her mother love her than anything else. I never connected with this character and spent the entirety of book sort of standing back in slack-jawed awe at this main character’s apparent mental breakdown.

If I had to rate this book on a scale of one to five, I’d give it a three. It was an enjoyable read, but I definitely won’t revisit it. Lovely Bones remains my favorite Sebold novel.

Review: Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Review: Lucky by Alice Sebold

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Review: Lucky — Alice Sebold

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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.

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Review: Lovely Bones — Alice Sebold

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I found it interesting, after reading an interview with Alice Sebold in the back of Lucky, that she wrote the begining of The Lovely Bones before starting Lucky. She said she didn’t want the narrator, Suzie Salmon’s story to be infused with her own, so she put it down. She wrote Lucky. Then she went back to tell Suzie’s story.

This novel begins at the toughest part. Suzie is attacked on her way home from school and killed in the most horrific way I can think of. While not quite as descriptive as Sebold’s own rape, Suzie’s is just as stomach turning especially because she’s a child.

Narrating from Heaven, Suzie focuses predominantly on two things: the effect of her disappearance on her family, and their relationships with each other and everyone around them, as well as needing to reach out to the people she left behind so they can find the truth about her. The point of view is a bit fantastical, but was never distracting. Sebold managed to effectively tell a story through the eyes of a ghost without ever losing the reader or discrediting her narrator.

There isn’t as much of a drive for Suzie to heal since she is already in what proves to be a wonderful place, albeit temporary. Her need to connect is less about justice for herself and more protecting and aiding the people she loves.

While there are a number of similarities between Lucky and The Lovely Bones, the sense of Sebold being a formulaic author is a fleeting one. The most glaring contrast is that Alice herself dealt with post-traumatic stress and living every day as a “rape survivor.” It became part of her identity. Suzie, in a fictional Heaven, was able to essentially put herself aside and focus her intentions on her family and her attacker.

*As a side note, I want to mention that Sebold found healing in reading a book she was quoted in about PTSD, Trauma and Recovery. I think that anyone dealing with PTSD from a traumatic experience like rape or sexual abuse would find these books very difficult, if not impossible to read. I’m not a mental health professional, but I suggest that anyone who’s suffered a traumatic experience like the ones Sebold writes about should discuss these with a counselor or psychologist before reading.

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