Critical analysis of Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones"

Alice Sebold’s number one national bestselling novel The Lovely Bones depicts the horrendous rape and murder of a small-town girl named Suzie Salmon. Suzie must then watch--from her own personal heaven—her family and friends struggle to cope and move on with their lives. The novel is set in the suburbs of Norristown, Pennsylvania, 1973. Published in 2002, The Lovely Bones became an instant bestseller, and in 2010 it was released into theaters around the world. Alice Sebold’s early years helped set the stage for her literary career. When Alice Sebold was a freshman at Syracuse University, she survived a brush with death herself. On May 8, 1981, she was raped while walking home through a park off campus. Her attacker dragged her into a tunnel and brutally sodomized her. Sebold reported the crime to the police, but at the time they could not identify any suspects (“Alice Sebold” 108). Sebold returned to Syracuse after spending the summer with her parents. On October 5, 1981, Sebold was walking down a street near campus, and she recognized her rapist. Eventually, with the help of her family, she found the courage to help police identify her assailant and even took to the witness stand during his trial where he was convicted (“Alice Sebold” 108). He received the maximum sentence. Several years after Sebold graduated from Syracuse, she moved to Manhattan, where she held several waitressing jobs. Sebold wanted to write her story through poetry, but neither poetry nor her attempts at writing a novel became reality. Sebold began writing the book that would become Lucky in New York. In its first drafts, the book was a fictionalized version of her rape and its aftermath. Sebold later turned the book into a memoir. After successfully finishing her memoir, Sebold continued to write The Lovely Bones, which was released in 2002. In an interview conducted by Ann Darby of Publishers Weekly, Sebold said of The Lovely Bones: "I was motivated to write about violence because I

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