The Lovely Bones: Deluxe Edition
by Alice Sebold
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Book Reviews of The Lovely Bones: Deluxe Edition
Book Review: Two books, neither very good
Summary: 1 Stars
Around the middle of TLB, I realized that I was reading two different books mushed together by a persistent narrator (who just happens to be omniscient and first person at the same time, oh how clever!).
The first half of the book reads like a kind of mystery novel in which the reader knows the identity of the villain that the characters are trying to discover. I though this was a fairly interesting approach, especially since there were very few clues to direct the characters. I must say though that I was grossly disappointed by the fact that Mr. Salmon "figures out" who-done-it by using his spidey-sense rather than actually piecing together the mystery or, you know, detecting. I get it. The real world is hard, and cases go unresolved. But, to offer the reader a resolved case, including the deus ex machina ending and a sense of semi-closure, seems to miss the point about the impossibility of resolution in favor of a watered down sentimentality.
The second face of the novel is the ghost story. Much like the mystery aspect, the ghost story leaves the reader unsatisfied. Several times the reader is told that Susie is effecting the world (or at least the feelings of her family members and friends), but this never manifests in any concrete way until the creepy body-snatchers sex scene (which, by the way, can be read as another type of rape since Ruth can't possibly consent). The fact that TLB was more about emotional haunting than the supernatural would have been interesting if not for the ridiculous insertions of sappy afterlife moments (like Susie meeting up with her dog in the afterlife, or the inexplicable presence of utterly forgettable characters like Holly/Whatshername).
On another note the word "toothsome" means delicious, so the "blind, nosy, toothsome" moles are apparently good eating. I know its nitpicking, but every time I read a sentence in Yoda-ese or an inappropriate word choice all I could think of was how much this book wanted to be good literature, but couldn't pull it off.
The final complaint I have about this novel is that I was under the impression that Orientalism was out of fashion since, oh say, the turn of the century. Apparently someone needs to tell Sebold that. If I had to read about Ray or his mother's exotic, asexual, beauty one more time I might have screamed.
Book Review: Spoiler Free Review
Summary: 2 Stars
Without giving away the story, I just have to say the main points about this book that I think are disappointing lie in the erratic jumping around in the story and the ending. While many criticize the story itself because of the happy family or the violence of the book, I was able to get around that, but not the other issues. And actually, I didn't think the book was really that violent.
First, while I commend the writer for trying something new and unique, the overall writing is what started to get me. The story is narrated by the 14 year old girl, and often jumps from her talking about something happening now to memories of the past. After awhile this starts to get old and can be difficult at times to follow. I had to stop a couple times and reread a paragraph to figure out if what she was saying was now or then. The reading isn't difficult, it's just the constant reminiscing that gets irritating.
Second, and this is why I gave the book 2 stars rather then 3, I felt the end was rather empty. There is no real resolution, no climax. From the beginning you feel like you are reading the book backwards, and the question becomes "why would someone want to read the whole book if you already know who killed her?" I hoped there would be some climax in the book and suddenly it would become a page turner, like it sort of was in the beginning, but there never was. There are several questions to be answered that never were. I don't want to go into detail because I don't want to give anything away, but I felt the ending lacked a lot. Sure, there is a little summary for the main characters, but for me that just isn't enough. And some of the characters I just didn't care about, like the mother and grandmother for example. I suppose maybe I expected too much because I'm used to reading books like Harry Potter and Narnia, as well as Edgar Allan Poe and the original Grimm brothers' stories.
While the book wasn't horrible, I simply wouldn't recommend it. If it was based off of a true story I could see how there would be unanswered questions, but since it is fiction, there should have been more of an ending. Without it, the book truly does feel backwards.
Book Review: Learning to cope with a grievous loss
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an extraordinary and sensitively written book about a family's suffering after the disappearance, and presumed death, of a family member, a beautiful, innocent 14 year old girl. The story is narrated, from "her heaven" by Susie Salmon, who was the victim of a rape and murder. The children in the family, a younger sister, Lindsey, and an even younger brother, Buckley, eventually learn to cope and get on with their lives after their grievous loss. It is the father and mother who fall apart. The father, Jack, becomes completely obsessed with the investigation of the presumed murder of his daughter, and ruins his health and emotional well-being in the process. Abigail, the mother, cannot deal at all with Susie's death, suppresses her feelings and eventually abandons her husband and the rest of her family.
Susie, from her heavenly home, observes throughout the years, the comings and goings of her family members, and shares in their thoughts and feelings, as well as the various accomplishments of her siblings. We can, therefore, depend on an accurate and heart felt narration of what is going on. There is no doubt that Susie, deeply loves her family, and somewhat attempts to influence and ameliorate some of Jack and Abigail's self-destructive behaviors. Susie also tries as much as she can to support the growing up processes of Lindsey and Buckley, as well as the self-discoveries of her friend, Ruth, and of Susie's boyfriend, Ray Singh. While Ms. Sebold gives rather short shrift to how she finally deals with the perpetrator, I feel that this denoument works, because the novel primarily deals with the issues of love and reconciliation, rather than punishment. That the author occasionally slips into over-sentimentality may be excused, because Ms. Sebold makes the after-life aspects of the story believable, and develops credible and sympathetic characters. The book also affected me personally, having had to cope this past year with my intense grief over the death of my beloved younger sister.
Book Review: The Lovely Bones
Summary: 5 Stars
Please don't let the subject matter shy you away from this book! As I was reading it I would try to talk about it to people - and either they had read it and thought it was fantastic or... they said they didn't want to read about a 14 year old girl being raped and murdered.
The Lovely Bones is so much more about Suzie Salmon's murder - it is a story about how the dead struggle with just as many uncertainties as the living. Suzie wants to help her family find the killer, Suzie wants her family to see her so they know she is allright -- Just like Suzie's family wants to find the killer and they want her to know that they are allright.
Alice Sebold presents parallels to the reader that, if they are like me, hadn't really thought about before. Most of us believe that the human spirit transcends death beyond earth and goes somewhere and lives on - but what do they experience? Might it be more difficult for them then us on earth who still have friends and family that we can turn for support while the dead struggle to give us some kind of sign, some kind or message or image? And might the dead cherish those breakthroughs that we on earth consider coincidences or imagination?
But with all of that said what Alice Sebold is really trying to tell us is that everything in our world (living or dead) is about letting go and moving on. Sebold herself is rape survivor and while she wrote a different book than Lovely Bones about it -- I cannot help but see what are probably similarities bewtween how the characters in Lovely Bones learn to live and how she herself may have.
It is odd that one event, one minute or one hour can change our lives forever - but what Sebold is trying to tell us is that our lives are constantly changing and our struggles to hold onto our comfort can ultimately be our demise - we need to move forward with change (as difficult and painful as it may sometimes be) and not hold on. Everything is part of our lives - both the good and the bad and each shapes us into who we are.
Book Review: Andrew Ellington's review is shocking in my opinion.
Summary: 5 Stars
When i read his review I was thinking either this person is extremely cold in nature or trying to make some sort of haughty english professor review in which only miraculous or super "artsy-odd-quirky" books that aren't liked by a mass or hardly known of get the 5 stars from him. People that like to come across as being superior in their "expert" criticisms because they have more education in a field or expose themselves to a large amount of a subject always irk me.
I found myself crying through a huge majority of the book. I can't begin to imagine that this story could be so "unconnecting" to someone. And no, I don't find myself brought to tears by many stories whatsoever. I think a lot of people may relate to this book in the way that at one point in their lives they feel similar feelings, and it doesn't have to be spawned by experiencing an actual death. I found that in my life, i've experienced feelings as though i was not very "here" so-to-speak and just watching the people in my life around me, going on in life living the things that i've wanted to live. I imagine when people go through rough patches in life, that it's not such an uncommon feeling to metaphorically feel "dead" and be much more the existing observer of surroundings. In that way, I feel like the entire human race can really feel in this book and have a deep connection to one or more of these characters. To me, this was an extremely emotional, page-turning grabber; I literally started it around 9am on a Saturday and read through the whole thing finishing about 4am the following morning. It was just so intense, it was impossible to put down. That, to me, is all that needs to be said that a book is amazing. Let this book enrich your viewpoint of life and relationships as so many readers have. It's truly "spell-binding" for lack of a better, uncliche, term. ;) And to think I just stumbled on it by a family member that just dumped me a ton of books to read - what a great find!