Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones *spoilers*

[steffee]

I think that heaven isn't something you "win" like the lottery. It's not material, and it's not a place where your fondest wishes come true. It's a place where you can be at peace, you don't have the same wants and needs and desires as when you were a living breathing person. You might see your loved ones, but you accept that you can't do anything for them, change anything for them, because only God has that power. If you believe in the Heaven as depicted in the book, she is calmly watching her loved ones, knowing that life goes on without her. I didn't sense too many emotions in her, you'd think she'd be angry at her killer, but she wasn't.

Yes, I understood that for all she could see her family (particularly her father) were distraught, she could do nothing. Many people have commented on the bit where she uses her one and only chance to 'come back to earth' to sleep with Ray, rather than letting everyone know where her killer is, but I think that was done just right.

Had she told someone where her killer was, everyone's lives would have been changed forever, and I don't think one (dead or alive) person has that ability, I agree with you on that. One thing she did want desperately, and something that didn't interfere with someone else's free will, was to sleep with Ray.

But still, there was no hope or inspiration about it. Maybe she was 'at peace' in her heaven, my impression is that she wasn't, but even if she was, it's a bit of an apathetic existence.

 

[Miss Shelf]

Well, I think she was in the "training heaven" until she could cut her ties with the earthly world and progress to the real Heaven.

I was puzzled too by her choosing to sleep with Ray instead of pointing out her burial place (which I think is more important than a big neon sign over the head of the killer). I couldn't understand why she didn't let people know where she was buried, and I think that the sleeping with Ray bit was something she desperately wanted, more than letting people know where her body was-because she was so young, and didn't realize how much more it would have meant to her loved ones to know where her body was. How many teenagers rank sex as #1 on their lists? pretty much all of them, I think.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

But still, there was no hope or inspiration about it. Maybe she was 'at peace' in her heaven, my impression is that she wasn't, but even if she was, it's a bit of an apathetic existence.

Where did you get the impression that she was unhappy in Heaven? I never got that feeling, to be honest, so I'm curious. It felt to me like she was at peace - she could play everyday with another little girl on a familiar, loved playground, she had a "mother" looking after her, and at the end she met up with her Grandfather.

Well, I think she was in the "training heaven" until she could cut her ties with the earthly world and progress to the real Heaven.

This is entirely plausible, as if I recall correctly, some people, like her Grandfather and the other victims of her killer, were waiting for the right time to come and visit her. Perhaps the 'right time' was when she was gradually cutting off her links and moving towards the "real" Heaven where those people already resided.

 

[hakkaisally]

Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones

have anyone read it?

the character's name was Salmon, first name, Susie. she was fourteen when she was murdered on December 6, 1973. by their neighbour,Mr. Harvey

But her soul didnt leave her family,she was always looking at everything around her family,her father,mather,sister,brother etc for many years.

And her father was always thinking of her. So she cared about her family in the heaven

Many years later,the family was used to living without her,they were out of the sorrowness.She eventually realized she would have a peaceful life in the heaven.

 

[Prairie_Girl]

Here ya go! Join it!
http://forums.thebookforum.com/showthread.php?t=965&highlight=Lovely+Bones

Oh and Welcome!

 

[henrietta]

I hated this book, though it was poorly written and had a creepy, unexplained disassociated quality even when dealing with characters who weren't living in some sort of hazy afterlife. The plot drove the characters. The various explanations for the main character's curious behavior and choices, especially late in the book, should have been made by the book itself. The fact that the narrator is a dead teenager existing in some sort of horny daze, doesn't excuse the author from doing the work. In fiction, particularly popular fiction, a good writer doesn't simply toss out a plot and hope her readers like her gimmick enough to work out the rest for themselves. Sebold's a lazy writer, but her success suggests that most people aren't lazy readers.

 

[steffee]

I hated this book, though it was poorly written and had a creepy, unexplained disassociated quality even when dealing with characters who weren't living in some sort of hazy afterlife. The plot drove the characters. The various explanations for the main character's curious behavior and choices, especially late in the book, should have been made by the book itself. The fact that the narrator is a dead teenager existing in some sort of horny daze, doesn't excuse the author from doing the work. In fiction, particularly popular fiction, a good writer doesn't simply toss out a plot and hope her readers like her gimmick enough to work out the rest for themselves. Sebold's a lazy writer, but her success suggests that most people aren't lazy readers.

I hated it too, and agree it was poorly and lazily written. I'm disappointed it sold so many copies and so many people liked it. Each to their own I guess... I do think the idea behind it was good though, just that Alice Sebold ruined it completely. Saying that, it was memorable... depressing, but memorable. And a complete waste of the hours I spent reading it.

 

[Sitaram]

But it does seem kinda strange that God is never mentioned in heaven, lol.

Not so much strange, as politically correct. Consider the popular television series, "Seventh Heaven" about a Christian minister and his family. Count how often the word "God" appears in the episodes of numerous seasons.

There is one fascinating scene, where the Reverend is recovering from a heart attack, and his wife is bending over his hospital bed. One catches a very rare glimpse of a cross, a very small cross, hanging from chain around her neck, revealed only because the neckline of her blouse allows the camera a modest view inside. And it is not a traditional cross, with a corpus, but a most stylized, modernize cross, which only vaguely whispers its cruciform shape to reveal what it represents. One never even sees a cross in the church scenes.

Yes, not strange, but merely prudently, politically correct.

 

[denny]

Hmmm, I've just finished reading this book, and I really couldn't decide where to post about it. Should it be in this forum? Should it be in the 'books you didn't like but which everyone raved about' thread, or should it be in the 'wierdest book you've ever read' thread???!!!

It took me 3 days to read 500 pages. I can normally polish off 500 pages in just over day - so that's some indication as to how I felt about it. Last night I even found myself watching TV INSTEAD OF READING

Because there had been so many good reviews about it on here, I decided to give it a try, and, to be honest, the oddity of the main character already being dead kind of appealed to me. I'll give Alice Sebold credit in that it's an unusual angle to write from.

But.......

apart from that I found it rather like watching paint dry. I stuck with it thinking that it HAD to get better, but sadly, in my opinion, it didn't. It was slow, the author flitted from present to past repeatedly, and there was really no conclusion. At 'the end', i.e. at the bottom of the last page, I couldn't help but wonder whether Ms Sebold had just got tired with writing about it and went to bed?!

 

[Peder]

I haven't been to this thread in a while but, having just noticed some negative votes coming in, I thought I'd see how the thread overall had been doing. The envelope, please!

1. There were 30 different contributors in favor, 8 against. That's 80% in favor.

2. There were 44 definitely favorable posts, 13 unfavorable. That's 77% favorable, call it also 80%. (Of posts with definite opinions).

3. 50 out of the 105 posts were discussion, just about 50%.

4. The total of posts counted agreed with the number posted (107). Amazing!

Everyone can reach whatever conclusions they wish.
Hope you all have a nice day,
Peder

 

[steffee]

Thanks for those (oh so precise ) statistics, Peder!

 

[Peder]

Thanks for those (oh so precise ) statistics, Peder!

Steffee,
If a job is worth doing at all, it is worth doing right! Right?
Haven't heard that in a long time,
But glad you enjoyed them,
Sounds like Lovely Bones is a popular book,
Peder

 

[steffee]

I thought it was vastly overrated, rather.

And yes, Peder, if a job's worth doing... absolutely!

 

[Peder]

I thought it was vastly overrated, rather.

Steffee,
Yes, well, I was on the negative side also and when I saw the recent unfavorable posts I thought the tide might be turning -- which is why I did the count. It is now clear that the tide will have to turn a lot more before it challenges the majority view. As if!
Peder

 

[steffee]

Oh well, just as well we're not all the same then huh?

 

[Peder]

Oh well, just as well we're not all the same then huh?

Steffee,
That is what makes for horse races! And adds spice to life.
But OTOH it has never much bothered me to be in the minority.
Ana a good thing, too! Because I frequently am! Like here.
Just can't help it.
Peder

 

[steffee]

Aww, Peder, you aren't in the minority. Not least on the Nabokov threads where your adoring minions er... positively adore you!

I'll join you in the minority with regards to The Lovely Bones though, if you don't mind.

 

[Peder]

Aww, Peder, you aren't in the minority. Not least on the Nabokov threads [etc, etc ]
I'll join you in the minority with regards to The Lovely Bones though, if you don't mind.

Steffee,
Stop tickling! You make me blush!
Actually, Nabokov is another minority, and smaller than here, so that makes two we are in. But we are loud and the friendship is definitely Glory-ous. /Hint, hint, and end of advertisement /
And even minoritites need company,
So hopefully we'll be meeting again, soon,
And I do mean you
Peder

 

[steffee]

Aww, Peder, now you made me blush!

It's a shame Nabokov is still in the minority, but we're doing our best huh, and yes, it is a very loud minority, at that.

I love your Glory-ous hint, and will pick it back up today. So I'll be seeing you very soon! (And I do apologise to loyal The Lovely Bones fans for hijacking the thread.)

 

[h_carnahan]

I just finished the book, my only incentive to read it was that it was listed as a recomended reading for the AP Literature exam. I found the book to be very interesting. I enjoyed the narrator and Sebold's description or creation of heaven for Susie. Earlier on in the thread someone said that they disagreed with the sex between Ruth and Ray. I thought that it was very justified, Susie was raped and murdered when she was getting to her "curious" stage of life. For her sex was a mystery and then when she experienced it through rape it destroyed her in the end (murder). I think that Susie and Ray was beautiful because it re-examined sex and showed its beauty. I thought that this had to be especially diffiuclt for Sebold since she is a rape victim herself.

The one thing I loved about the book is not only does it acurately depict grief but it shows both how death destroys and brings together. The relationships that could never continue and those that prospered as a result. Death is a mysterious thing and Sebold showed it wonderfully.