“”My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.””
With these first lines, Alice Sebold beckons her readers into her compelling and singular novel, “”The Lovely Bones.”” It is told through the eyes of Susie, who is already in heaven after being murdered by a neighbor. Sebold’s picture of heaven is not a typical one, but a world unique to each person’s desires. Though it merely serves as a backdrop to Susie’s musings, it is one of the most interesting elements in the book.
Susie finds herself in the high school she dreamed of attending her next year on earth, where she meets a girl named Holly whom she ends up living with in their ideal home, a duplex. Though heaven had year-round peppermint ice cream and Seventeen magazines for textbooks, it still could not give Susie what she most wanted: to be allowed to grow up.
Susie decides to observe the world she left behind since she “”came to believe that if I watched closely, and desired, I might change the lives of those I loved on earth.”” She sees her parents retreat into themselves due to the horror that has taken over their lives; her father reaching out to those he loves while her mother pulls away from the family she can no longer handle.
Her younger sister Lindsey must brace up against the sympathy of countless adults and Susie watches while she attempts to not lose herself through the loss of a sister. Though too young to ever truly understand Susie’s death, her brother Buckely is the only one she succeeds in reaching. She looks on longingly as her friends try to go on with their lives.
The narrative style makes the novel engaging, since it blends the experiences of her family before the loss with the day-by-day events of their lives as they continue to work through their grief. It is this combination that gives a full picture of the impact of death in a person’s life.
Sebold’s novel is truly about how a family mourns and heals after an unimaginable loss. It is this healing that is the heart of the story, and through Susie’s vision, she explores all the characters equally, relating their motivations, actions and reactions in a clear and believable way. It is a fresh outlook that is insightful and heartening to all who have lost someone in death. “”The Lovely Bones”” is about restoration after heartbreak and devastation.
The novel, which has been compared to Harper Lee’s classic “”To Kill a Mockingbird,”” has a crisp style that, despite the subject matter, is neither overly gruesome nor sentimental. Moreover, it is inspirational and even funny rather than overly depressing. Susie narrates in a manner that is omniscient yet surprisingly not bitter, sad nor angry. Though she does suffer the pangs of watching her friends accomplish what she was never able to do, her pain is felt for those who remain behind to sort out their loss.
The ending was unexpected yet satisfying; though it wraps up neatly, it remains true to the tone of the novel. Both emotional and exciting, this book catches you from the first paragraph and does not let go. It is a novel you will reminiscently revisit in bookstores long after you have finished, merely glancing through pages to feel its powerful nature again.
