 "An inauthentic account that summarizes rather than feels the rape" | 2009-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3E5ELCOU0LLCN |
As one who enjoyed "The Lovely Bones" (until the end, which struck me as more artifice than art), I was severely disappointed by Ms. Sebold's memoir. Like "The Lovely Bones," the beginning of "Lucky" starts strong, the events she relates are gripping and well told, and we are drawn into the narrative's chilling details because of her almost clinical point of view. However, the rest of the narrative is far less engaging. For the most part, "Lucky" struck me as an inauthentic, clumsy, and occasionally cliched reporting of an event that Sebold has yet to deal with and recover from emotionally. We are told a series of episodes in Sebold's life, some that are relevant to the rape, others that appear thrown in for no apparent reason other than they may have been associated in her mind in some way with the rape. Unfortunately, Sebold relies almost entirely on telling us the logical connections between events; rarely does she shows us the emotional connections and, more importantly, her emotional reactions to them. In short, I felt cheated by Sebold's lack of emotional engagement with her ordeal. The fact that she eventually resorted to heroin and a series of emotionally-detached serial sex partners makes me wonder how she could categorize the last section of the memoir as the "Afterword." Clearly she was still in the grips of PTSD, which was, from my perspective, where the memoir should have begun. Of interest to everyone, not just other women who have been raped, or, for that matter, anyone who has experienced a traumatic event (the death of loved one, the horror of war) is this: how did she recover her former self-respect and self-confidence to the point of being able to turn this traumatic experience around and use it not only as the focus of a memoir, but as the gist of a best-selling novel? By the end I was still wondering if Sebold ever recovered from the effects of the rape.
Perhaps I was left with this question because Sebold's irritating self-absorption killed any sympathy I may have had for her as both the central "character" and and the narrating author. Rather than take us into the fear, panic, loneliness, even alienation from others she must of felt during and after the attack, most of the time we hear Sebold's "author" voice summarizing and sanitizing every experience. Ironically, we could infer that in her own life Sebold failed in her roles as loving daughter, compassionate friend, and caring lover because in the memoir we see her exerting an almost obsessive, predicable, even mechanistic control over all of her relationships. Take her desperate need for Lila's friendship after the rape. When Lila eventually "dumps" her, Sebold takes pains to describe how she was snubbed publicly. Where is her private grief at the loss of her closest friend? In fact, who is Lila, apart from Sebold's "clone" or, as Sebold seems to suggest, her doppelganger? That Sebold can only describe Lila as a reflection of herself (literally, Lila is raped on Sebold's bed), would be repugnant if it weren't for the fact that Sebold seems totally unaware that she is abusing a real person for literary effect. Moreover, except for the inclusion of her poem "Conviction," which is emotional catharsis dressed up as a literary exercise (merely clever, but not convincing), Sebold would have been far more convincing had she quoted directly from her journals (which she frequently mentions) to show us authentic expressions of grief, loneliness, anger, depression in all its unmediated rawness.
Ultimately, like any fictional narrative, a successful memoir must exhibit the qualities of good story telling: include only what we need to know, show rather than tell, and most importantly, leave the reader with something experienced, felt, and learned "with" the author, not "by" the author. Sadly, Ms. Sebold's memoir failed to convince me that she lost more than just her virginity that night in the tunnel. |
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 "Lucky - Memoir" | 2009-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: AIKG7HEEIGQHX |
After I had gone through some intense emotions over my rape experience, a friend suggested I read this book. The first chapter was very difficult to get through. I was able to picture it all very vividly, and it brought back some memories of my experience that I thought that I had forgotten. Somehow, even though I was crying, I was able to get through that first chapter.
The first chapter goes into great detail about a black stranger who drags her into a tunnel under an outdoor theatre in Syracuse and rapes her, leaving her to walk back to her dorm alone and get help. This book is about the long court process and her recovery.
Part of rape therapy is writing a story about your experience. This book shows a woman who had (and still has) a great deal of strength. She says in her book (and also on the back cover) "you save yourself or you remain unsaved".
This book left me with a better understanding of my emotions about my experience after hearing similar feelings from someone else.
If you can get through the first chapter, I would totally recommend this book. |
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| "Saddened and ambivalent" | 2009-09-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: AS9FAT63RXSVE |
I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend but normally I wouldn't choose to tackle this subject matter. That said, I felt a lack of sympathy for the writer. I feel awful saying this as she went through something traumatic. But in her detailed description of everything, I for the first time thought, god forbid this ever happened I don't know that I would pursue justice. The reason I say this is because of the characters who were raped, which I counted four I think, the ones who confront the issue are the most screwed up. Obviously, I havent' walked in her shoes and you don't know what you would go through until you yourself are there, but I was soooo disappointed, yet not surprised, to learn that Sebold had turned to heroin. Also, as her life progressed after the incident, more 'bad things' happened and if you read carefully, you could see them coming. It was almost like she was putting herself in harms way, but she never acknowledges this self-sabotage. I agree with some of the other reviewers in that her writing style seems self-centered and that she hasn't acknowledged how horrible her parents are as she portrays them.
To sum it up, the story I thought was going to be one of triumphant over tragedy and it was anything but. It was sooo depressing and infiltrated my mind with negative images that were not erased in the end. I wouldn't recommend thsi book to anyone looking for a good memoir. As far as women who have been sexually assaulted, I guess I would read several reviews, because some rape survivors found the book helpful and some did not.
I do hope Sebold has made progress in her recovery and has found some sliver of happiness. |
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| "A powerful testament to the resiliency of the human spirit" | 2009-08-05 |
| - Reviewed By yousack |
I've known of Alice Sebold for a few years now, but I never actually read a book of hers until now, when I read "Lucky," her memoir on her brutal rape and the subsequent prosecution of her attacker.
The rape itself lasts for eleven pages, and the remaining two hundred pages detail the difficulties that she experiences throughout the course of her recovery, from unfulfilling relationships to discovering that the policeman who originally documented her testimony was in disbelief for quite some time. The true power of this memoir comes not from Sebold's impeccable memory, though that certainly contributes to the hard reality of her life, but from her ability to recover from the assault and her resolve to convict her attacker despite the seeming impossibilities of it all. Her own roommate is raped while Sebold is gone, apparently in retaliation for her attacker's conviction, and yet, throughout the book, her dry sense of humor and courage shine brightly through every sentence that she writes.
Truthfully, I have never read a firsthand account of any sexual assault on a woman before this book, and having now read this, I can't imagine how any man could ever do this to a woman, but Sebold is unapologetic about the details -- and for good reason. The harsh reality of her experience is immensely powerful. |
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| "Read it twice!" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1P204CBQ0CHCZ |
| Great book! Alice Sebold's account is brutally honest and entertaining at the same time. I was rooting for her the whole way through. |
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| "What is wrong with this society?" | 2009-07-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1JZLANTBE9BA2 |
This book was a real eye opener for me. Thankfully, myself and anyone I know have ever been raped. It is truly amazing to me what a rape victim must go though with police, family, freinds, lawyers, etc always questioning and accusing. Now I understand why many victims do not even bother to come forward after being raped. It doesn't even seem worth it. How heartbreaking!
How dare any of us give this book less than 5 stars, it would be nothing less than a slap in the face to this courageous victim. |
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