The Lovely Bones

So it would seem that the tragic comedy known as my life has kept me from updating my ever so lonesome blog. However, all of that is about to change because classes have started up again and you know what that means- mandatory blogging. I suppose that isn’t such a bad thing, after all I do need SOMETHING to get my butt in gear in keeping up with this thing. I was doing quite well until my trip to Florida; things seemed to tumble downhill from there. Anyhow, I do believe I have a specific topic I should be blogging about, is that not correct? Ah, yes, a literary classic.

The previous “literary classic” I wrote of was not in fact any sort of literary classic at all and that is indeed going to be the same with this post. It’s a new book that I have been absolutely enthralled with, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Sebold takes such an interesting point of view while telling this tragic tale of a 14-year-old girl, Susie, who was raped and murdered by a man in her neighborhood. The book opens up with Susie in her own personal heaven. Her heaven is different from other people’s heaven, but they all seem to intertwine flawlessly. Susie is telling her story and watching as her family is trying desperately to unravel the mystery of what happened to her. This is both saddening and frustrating for Susie to watch due to the fact that her family begins to make some interesting choices while uncovering the truth of her death.

I love the fact that the author chooses to use the narrative voice throughout the entire book, not many authors choose to do so nowadays. It flows perfectly with the story and really lets you into the mind of the victim. You see the grief, confusion and constant struggle of dealing with what happened. The question of “Why?” comes up time after time, which had the result of me asking myself that very same question. If I were in that situation would I have been naïve enough to make the choices that Susie had made? I like the fact that the author gets you thinking and keeps your brain working throughout the story while also keeping you very connected with the characters.

This book has also caused quite a bit controversy, however. The fact that it deals with the afterlife and Susie having her own personal heaven has caused quite a stir in the religious community. “To me, the idea of heaven would give you certain pleasures, certain joys - but it's very important to have an intellectual understanding of why you want those things,” Sebold explains. “It's also about discovery, and being able to come to the conclusions that elude you in life. So it's from the most simplistic things - Susie wants a duplex - to larger things, like being able to understand why her mother was always slightly distant from her.” Sebold has also stated that the book is not intended to be religious, "but if people want to take things and interpret them, then I can't do anything about that. It is a book that has faith and hope and giant universal themes in it, but it's not meant to be, 'This is the way you should look at the afterlife'” [1]

After reading the book Peter Jackson fell in love with the story as well as the characters and has transformed this “literary classic” into a movie that will be released in the near future.


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1 (Viner, Katharine; August 24, 2002; "Above and Beyond: Interview with Alice Sebold"; The Guardian; retrieved April 4, 2007)


*Posted for credit for JRN 212