MEDIA: The Lovely Bones

WHAT: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold WHERE: Your Garden-Variety Book Store HOW MUCH: $13.95

Susie Salmon dies on page 15.

I know that’s an odd way to begin a book review, but I find it an amazing fact: the heroine of this story dies just 15 pages into a 328-page book. How, as a writer, do you maintain momentum in a story when the story’s main character dies on practically page one?

Most great stories center around a protagonist who struggles against some great challenge. Will this character prevail? Will they succeed? Will they live through whatever great trial faces them? Those are generally the questions that keep readers flipping those pages. And yet here author Alice Sebold takes the outrageously gutsy step of resolving the great dilemma before the story has even gotten off to a real start.. “What,” you might ask, “could Sebold possibly write about that would make this book worth reading past page 15?”

A lot, it turns out.

Like I said, the book’s main character Susie Salmon dies before Chapter One has come to a halt. The year is 1973, and fourteen-year old Susie is slain by the serial killer who lives next door (literally). From that point on, Susie narrates the story from heaven, where she watches the quiet, daily moments in the lives of her killer, her bereaved parents and siblings, and the friends she left behind.

It’s an interesting and novel premise. We see Susie’s parents’ unravel, we gain insights into the mania that drives her killer and we watch life roll on, as it does, even after the most horrible of events. We see this all through the eyes of Susie, who skips life in heaven from time to time to hover above her sobbing father and plotting killer.

You know, if someone described this book to me, I probably wouldn’t find myself adding it to my “must read” list and, yet, I’m going to recommend that you consider doing precisely that. It’s been awhile since I’ve really been consumed by a story—I didn’t realize that until I got caught up in this book. Sebold’s improbably (given the premise) created a book that takes hold and never lets go.

What? You’re not a fan of delving into the mind of serial killers? Not real keen on stories told from the perspective of teenage girls? I think you’ll still like The Lovely Bones. Sebold’s created a story about a life tragically cut short that somehow winds up feeling strangely uplifting and hopeful. How can that be? Well, you’ll just have to read the thing and find out.