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.
Cooo. Can't decide whether this is for me or not. I'll just have to try it at some point.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, 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.