In some ways, The Lovely Bones is best read alongside author Alice Sebold's memoir, Lucky. The latter is her account of her rape and near-death as a young college student; the former is her novel of a young girl's murder and subsequent life in heaven (we'll qualify that in a moment). Both are harrowing; both are, in their own ways, hopeful. Both are well-written; neither is maudlin or brutal.
Susie Salmon, the victim in The Lovely Bones, writes from, and of, heaven but the glimpses of it are relatively few; its concerns are more with life on earth and the impact of her murder on her family and friends. Sebold's writing on the topic is sharp and clear - almost icily so at times.
The heaven portrayed here is thin and watery; its happiness is detached and dulled. And Susie's own reconciliation with her death is via a consummated relationship in a brokered return to earth. What becomes clear, perhaps unintentionally so, is the fact that a disembodied reality cannot ultimately contain the fulness of joy we were made for.
And it will not; our adoption as sons will be completed with the redemption of our bodies.
1 comment:
Cooo. Can't decide whether this is for me or not. I'll just have to try it at some point.
Strangely, the overall concept sounds like something a friend described to me some years ago, that turns up in a Frank Peretti novel. Now I know that one would not normally associate Peretti which prestigious prize winning books, but if my memory is correct, there is a certain resonance between the overall plot device...if only I could remember what his book was called.
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