The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold

The furor over The Lovely Bones has sufficiently died down enough for me to permit myself to read it. Hmpf! I thought. I don't read popular fiction. I read literature. Well, sometimes a popular book just feels good, even if it's a book narrated by a murdered girl.

For anyone still unfamiliar with the story, our narrator is Susie Salmon, murdered by a neighbor while she walked home from school. (This is not a spoiler; it's the first chapter.) She narrates the work from heaven, where she watches her family cope with her disappearance.

First, the pros. The Lovely Bones was surprisingly well written. I was shocked by the beauty I found in a few simple lines. The story was gripping, even though I had already heard countless people talk about the book, and I finished it in about a day.

The cons? There were a few. The ending was a bit formulaic for me, a bit too New Age in the "let's all get happy" kinda way. A couple of the scenes seemed a bit contrived. But these drawbacks are minor compared to the work as a whole.

Illuminating? In a way. There is much to be said for Sebold's vision of heaven, but the pessimist in me says not to be comforted by images of frolicking dogs or dancing relatives. There is much to be learned about letting go, but I'm not sure I'd be so forgiving if I were in Susie's position.

In a nutshell: Not perfect, but does justice to the label "popular fiction."

Bibliolatry Scale: 3.5 out of 6 stars