Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
(Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
2004 Back Bay Books
ISBN: 0316168815

In a sweet, untroubled voice of a teenager, Susie relates the awful events of her death.

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos & public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen.

With love, longing, & a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief -- her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor -- & begin the difficult process of healing.

In the hands of a brilliant new novelist, & through the eyes of her winning young heroine, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful, touching, even funny novel about family, memory, love, heaven, & living.

Sr. Associate Reviewer Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

Enough & more has been written about this book -- that I just had to read it. WOW! Lovely Bones is of a different stuff, totally different from any novel I have ever read. Ardent readers of fiction might understand my feeling -- what was the feeling you got when you first read a Richard Bach work (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah for e.g.); or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand; or even Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- or for hardcore literature loyalists -- the feeling you got once you'd finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude.

I am not trying to compare these works with Lovely Bones -- all the works stand on totally different footing -- I am trying to draw an analogy of the feeling you get when you have read something unique & special, or in this case something totally out-of-this-world. From the very first sentence: “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie.” -- I was hooked into the pages.

The novel starts with the brutal rape-murder of young Suzie. Now she's in heaven & as she talks to us -- about the near & dear ones she left behind; how her rapist/murderer walks free & her perception of the tragedy she suffered, we slowly understand the tragedy that happened not only to Suzie, but for the whole community. Through her eyes the whole story evolves & what follows is something really, really special.

Subtle at the same time poignant, heart-wrenching & humorous, Lovely Bones is one great read.

More from Alice Sebold: Lucky: A Memoir
(10/10/04)

Narayan
2004©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org