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The Lovely Bones (平装)
by Alice Sebold
| Category:
Teens, Novel |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
The plot is one told with real emotion, and you cannot help but let the narrator's overwhelming sense of loneliness seep into your soul. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
Less than 2 years ago, our 13-year-old son Daniel died - very unexpectedly, of a massive asthma attack while on a school retreat. I purchased "The Lovely Bones", knowing the book's premise, for our 17-year old daughter to read. Not sure if the content of the book would be too close to our actual experience for Julia to handle, I decided to read it first (this is the first time I have done any pre-reading, as Julia is perfectly able to decide on her own whether or not to read a book, but still...) I was very surprised to find myself riveted to the book, and unable to stop reading it until finished. While I, like many earlier reviewers, found the end a little too contrived, I certainly feel that the book's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.
About 6 months after Daniel's death, I had a dream that portrayed a visit by my husband, daughter, and myself to Daniel in what was clearly "his heaven" - also containing a school in a residential neighborhood, a "foster family" which apparently served as his "home away from home", and - most positively - a large number of new friends. This was the best aspect of his Heaven, as far as I was concerned, as Daniel had been troubled for his entire life by an inability to make many friends, and here he was almost too busy to visit with his family because of wanting to get on with his activities with his buddies!
I have often offered the circumstances of Daniel's death - fast and probably painless (as a friend remarked, "Daniel doesn't know he's dead yet"), and that he was able to donate many of his organs - as probable explanations to those who find me so "upbeat" since he died. I contrast this situation with other, well-publicized child kidnappings, murders, and (worst, in my opinion) those events which are never resolved.
Nonetheless - some aspects of the narrative hit home, and I found myself tearing up more over this fictional account than our own all-too-real loss! I was forced to wonder what would Daniel think if he is able to follow our lives, as Susie followed those of her family and friends. Does he still pine for the girl he had a crush on? Is he sorry that he can't see the sequal to his beloved MIB movie? Is he able to eat his fill of cheese pizzas, now that he doesn't have to take at least one bite of his mother's sometimes too-exotic vegetarian experiments? Does he find it annoying that, after years of refusing to allow pets, we now have 3 crazy cats, as a result of Julia "needing" them? Is he bemused by the grief-stricken responses to his death by those same classmates he had sought as friends for so many years?
I am awaiting Julia's response to the book. In particular, I want to know how "genuine" the characterizations of Susie and Lindsay appear to her. I will suggest that she submit a review herself, so we will all know the answer.
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Matt Compton (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
In my mind, there are three things that make a book stand shoulders above the reams of pages printed each day. First is obviously the story; quite often the reader will forgive anything of a writer who creates a plot so gripping that we lose ourselves in the pages. Second are the characters; even the most mundane part of life - say a woman drinking her coffee before she prepares for work - can keep the pages turning if the protagonist is unique and interesting. Finally, there is the quality of writing; in great literature, it is often not what is said but how the story is told that makes the difference. The remarkable thing about Alice Sebold's first novel is not that it manages to do one of these things splendidly, but rather that she somehow creates a story that does all three. Told from a perspective that I have never before seen in modern literature, The Lovely Bones is a story that grips the imagination from page one and does not let go, even days after the novel has been finished. Sebold's characters are so real, so alive, that they spring from the page fully formed. The plot is one told with real emotion, and you cannot help but let the narrator's overwhelming sense of loneliness seep into your soul. Above all else, the beauty of Ms. Sebold's writing dominates the work, and the transcendent character of her words is simply sublime. The Lovely Bones is among the finest stories I have ever read. Buy a first edition while you still can-and treasure it like a first printing of To Kill A Mockingbird.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
The booklap promises a novel that is "luminous and astonishing." Guess what? That's not hyperbole. It IS.
By now, you must know that, at the outset, we meet Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl who - on a cold, snowy December late afternoon -- is raped and murdered by a neighbor in a corn field on her way home from eighth grade. She goes to heaven. And from heaven -- which is Susie's own personal heaven - she watches life on Earth unfold for her family and friends - and murderer.
Initally, that did not sound like a story I wanted to read. Too dark, possibly too sentimental for this middle-aged, male reader. Plus, I thought, we know who did it right at the top, so how interesting could this story be? Regardless, I bought the book because (1) of the unanimously strong reviews I had read, and (2) I was delayed at an airport and was desperate for a book to read.
Well, surprise. From the first page, I couldn't put the book down. An absolute page-turner. It's a winning mixture of true crime, coming-of-age story, fantasy, family drama and ghost story. And, for me, it was spiritually provocative, giving me pause regarding my notions of life, death and afterlife.
And all exquisitely told by Sebold. One reviewer called this a "miraculous" book. I agree. Another reviewer advised that, "if you read only one book this summer, this is the one to read." I agree heartily with that, too. Buy it, read it, savor every word.
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Nancy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
Coming of age stories have long been considered poignant and heart breaking leaving the readers with messages far greater than those found in books about adult experiences. Consider the following older titles, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, The Temple of Gold by William Goldman or more recently Ellen Foster, Durable Goods and Bastard Out of Carolina. Now consider the eloquent first novel, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold who introduces us to the character of Susie Salmon. Susie, a 14 year old, was raped and murdered and in one of the most innovative plots in recent years narrates her story from heaven. And before you say, Oh no, this book sounds morbid and not for me, let me be the first to say I never thought I would read this book, let alone enjoy it. And now that Ive finished this title, I can't wait to let some time elapse and then rereading it for more thoughts on this book.
Susie Salmon is the oldest of three children living in a suburban Pennsylvania community. Somewhat of a loner, before her death, Susie dreams that high school will change her life measurably. Susie is bright beyond her years and exhibits a unique curiosity and great wit even while relating incidents about her family from heaven. Walking home from school one day, Susie is lured away by someone she knows and then meets her violent death. From this point on till the end of the book, Susie relates the effect her death has on her parents, siblings and grandmother. She watches as her parents cope with the preliminary news and then ensuing investigation while Susie's body is never found. We watch along with Susie as their lonely neighbor, Mr. Harvey is scrutinized and questioned although never arrested or charged. We observe Susie's friends, Paul the shy Indian student initially accused of the murder and Ruth who is able to communicate with Susie. And our hearts ache as Susie's younger sister Lindsey finds friendship and ultimately love during the years after this event, their brother Buckley grows up never really knowing Susie and their grandmother becomes a vital part of a family she hardly knew. But most of all we cry as Susie's father never gives up trying to find out what happened to Susie and her mother who most leave the family in order to rejoin them at a later time.
Sebold's writing is candid, poignant and heart rendering. There are passages that took my breath, found me sighing away and reduced me to tears particularly the last two pages. And her sense of irony at the end is more than worth the journey. I truly think this is a must be read book. The author, herself a rape victim has the rare gift of exploring what must be one of the most difficult events in a famiily's life making it enticing and ultimately a most rewarding read.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
A random savage act of violence literally eviscerates 14 year old Suzie (last name Salmon, like the fish) from her family, her friends, and her life in our world. When we first meet her in the opening of The Lovely Bones, she is putting herself back together in her afterlife. As she relates her story to us, she watches her family and friends cope with her disappearance and the aftermath in the days, weeks months and years after, she struggles to make sense of what life and death is.
This was not easy to read: its not a romance, she's really dead, the afterlife is where she's at (there's no happy ending for Suzie). In fact, Suzie pointedly says more than once that her afterlife is not everyones, that it is her mind's imaginings of what her Heaven should be, with junctures of several like-minded individuals. It could have been named the Lonely Bones, because its themes are of loss, of loneliness, and ultimately, learning to live with yourself- however you are. It shows how separating life and loneliness is to humans (even to the dead), and how raw it can be as over time, even as you become used to it.
Alice Sebold has written a piece of fiction that drew me in, wrapped me up in it, and now, I think I'm probably not going to sleep well for a few days. For what its worth, I think its particularly interesting that I enjoyed and really delved into this book, given that I am atheist, do not believe in an afterlife, and ordinarily chuckle at stories involving "ghosts". This is definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. The prose is literate, the imagery vivid and the characters are well defined. The story's purpose is finally revealed at the end. Some may find it dissatisfying, not understanding its underlying meaning.
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David (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-02-15 00:00>
On August 14, 2002, I attended an Alice Sebold reading. As a journalist, I'm a cynic. I've only read about five novels since 1978. Most fiction involves less research and "rules" than non-fiction.
Yet Sebold spent five years writing "The Lovely Bones." She didn't intend it to be her Great American Novel (awful clich), a handbook about managing grief. But it sold more than one million copies in less than two months. Why?
On May 8, 1981, Alice Sebold was raped, an incident that nearly destroyed her. She wrote an explicit and shocking book about it called "Lucky." It was this knowledge, as a non-fiction reader, and not hype or current events, that drew me to "The Lovely Bones." You may not have to know this about Sebold. But if you do, what she writes in "The Lovely Bones" assumes credibility, even if you're shaking your head in bewilderment, having trouble "suspending" disbelief.
Hype" is a fashionably pessimistic word being used with excess to leverage what in my view are elitist comments against this book. "Hype" is a product of marketing with little relevance to quality. I agree with whomever said the following: People who give into "hype" expecting a seismic shift in their lives before turning to "page one," are doomed to disappointment. Hype doesn't give a book "legs." Word-of-mouth does.
Narrating from the dead, as Susie Salmon does in The Lovely Bones, isn't new. In the shorthand of cinema, you can quickly point to "D.O.A. (1950)," "Sunset Boulevard (1950) and "American Beauty (1999)." She may seem wiser beyond her "years," but it isn't critical to separate adolescent vs. adult narration. "Real time" exists for the living. Susie's dead.
In The Lovely Bones, the only thing that matters is what remains in memory. We question what we can't see, yet invisible things like oxygen, love, hate, lust, sorrow and hope are undeniable. After people die, we hear their voices, we remember their touch and the way they look. They're in the next room, watching TV, reading, whatever. Sebold captures our obsession, our "presence of mind" about the dead. This obviously resonates with people, many without the time to read 10 books per year. To denigrate fans of this book smacks of unnecessary snobbery that promotes literary "class distinctions." Conversely, sophisticated readers raise valid criticisms that wouldn't be as intense if they read the "NC-17" horrors of "Lucky."
Sebold creates a haunting tone, absent of shrillness or clinically described violence. A "quick read" is not synonymous with shallowness. Expressing the intangible with sentences 10-25 words in length is near impossible. But Sebold's ability to impart abstract thoughts into simple sentences can't be dismissed. This is not a murder mystery. If it was, it'd be ordinary. This is a well-crafted, admittedly broad-brush story about family connections that pushes the thriller into the back seat. Splitting hairs about the plausibility of character motivations misses the big picture of The Lovely Bones. This is not about listing minutiae of character traits. This is an unconventional novel. Perhaps this is why disappointed readers keep using words like "overrated" or phrases like, "doesn't live up to the hype." They're comfortable with authors requiring more words leading toward a revelation that feels closer to irony and "truth" than uplift. Hence, what's "familiar" seems trite.
But Sebold isn't trite. We demand logical human behavior, but there's a randomness about everything that lies ahead. Wry observations bring the ordinary to the surface without, in most cases, pretentiousness. Yes, Sebold is a poet. In real life. And accusations of peddling cheap sentiment ring false because she draws upon her past to conjure up spare, abstract subtext and expressions to carry her tale. She succeeds using observational symbolism without wielding a preachy sledgehammer. Looking for religious dogma in heaven? Forget it. To Susie, "heaven" is just a shorthand for where she "is." It could be anything.
Sebold's idea is that the dead do more than just "think." There are reasons why they suddenly seem near, then disappear. She told ABC News that she doesn't think too much about heaven. But she obviously thinks a lot about the dead, especially victims of violence. Some complain her characters are "caricatures." Composites of traits we've seen in friends and ourselves makes a concept less believable? Susie's "voice," regardless of age, represents her view, however subjectively precocious, illogical or formulaic. Only one chapter goes off the tracks, proffering an unnecessary scene that disrupts an otherwise fine narrative.
Is this a book for the ages? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm disturbed that a "commercial" success, even unexpected, is disproportionately punished with contempt in forums, unworthy of being labeled a "literary success." If the masses like it, hype is responsible and it must be suspect, despite glowing reviews from respected critics, many with advanced degrees in English and comparative literature. For me, a non-fiction reader, the restrained poignancy of Sebold's The Lovely Bones is a surprise in the aftermath of her uncensored and harrowing memoir, "Lucky." In the hands of any writer bereft of real-life misfortune, concepts about death in a fictional tale, wouldn't have worked. It's impossible for me to ignore the author's history. Yet the success of "The Lovely Bones" proves it doesn't matter.
However some feel undeserved - there's no doubt the legacy created by Sebold's non-fiction "Lucky" and the fictional The Lovely Bones - will remain preserved and inextricably linked: If life is defined by only what we see, our dead remain in the past. But if life is defined by our intermittent recognition of their invisible "presence," they remain eternal.
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1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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