Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones is a story that left me with a dark yet hopeful reality of life experiences that linger long after the last page is read. I've known from my experience in writing that aging perspectives, beginning at a young age, are difficult to deliver, and Sebold out does herself in this particular literary element with additional hardships. Surrounding the events of life before, during, and after a neighborhood tragedy, Sebold's readers are emersed into a fictional experience as real as breathing.

 

In her novel, Sebold specializes in the outer world experiences and takes her readers into a completely unique ideology of domestic violence and a heavenly atmosphere. The Lovely Bones expresses such creativity with a realistic balance that anybody- including the less avid reader- can relate too.

 

“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie”(Sebold P.5), is not only the first line of the book, but also the first most memorable line of the story. Littered with subplots, and an ominous death in the presence of most chapters, The Lovely Bones is not about death, but about life. Jumping from life to life with each chapter, Sebold's readers are never disappointed with or left empty handed throughout to stories resolution.  Be it from memories to realities, and from innocence to adulthood, Sebold takes her readers through developmental stages of growing up and mourning that is relateable to more than one community. She builds off of cultural experiences to develop the density of her characters by individualizing them in personal structures. Cultural traditions of the past and individualism of the time flood the pages of her book and explore the reality of domestic tragedy with profound new ways of creativity that is a once in a life time experience for any reader.

 

Though Susie is the main character and narrator, she is not the subject. Humble in her heavenly presents, Susie places herself among the lives of those people to whom she was closest to- her family, her friends, and her killer- and makes them her subjects. Placed into a world that has never been seen, the reader is kept interested with relateable circumstances that happen in the event of the loss of a loved individual. “When she returned to junior high in the fall of 1974, Lindsey was not only the sister of the murdered girl but the child of a ‘crackpot,’ ‘nutcase,’ ‘looney-tunes,’ and the latter hurt her more because it wasn’t true” (P.156). Susie watches both her father and her sister cope with their loss. Lindsey, Susie’s sister, handles herself in a unique way that sets her apart from the other characters as she advances though her life. The reader will understand soon that though Susie and her sister were very close, they couldn’t be more different, and Susie’s death only makes Lindsey’s character develop that much more.

 

Character development for some authors can be a difficult task to express at times, especially with a multitude of characters. However, Sebold’s The Lovely Bones has some of the best character development I have had the pleasure of reading. The organizational structure of the plot follows strict chronological time frames of each character, and never jumps out of routine. The Lovely Bones is the story after the story- it is the story that everyone wants to know about… what happened afterwards? As the plot develops, the reader is carried through a course of days, months, and then finally years, through the mind of Susie, but in the presents of multiple characters and profiles.

 

Each character that use to play a vital role in Susie’s life is developed in a different way and connects realistically to the current cultural society of the time in which they are in and how each individual copes with such tragic events. This sort of multiplicity is the understated definition of life and individuality. Of all the characters, no character develops as drastically as Susie’s father, Jack. With each page, Jack is in a consistent stage of mourning and growth, which is flooded with memories of his daughter. Though such horrible things have happened in his present life, he never sacrifices his role of playing the supporting father figure. Unlike Jack, Abigail, Susie’s mother, handles herself in a very different way by returning to her prior-mother self. She is the only character who needs to relive life in order to move on from death. Of all the characters who develop, the character who seems too set in his ways to change is her killer. Though Susie follows him into his past and learns how he might have begun in his psychological development to killer, he never satisfies his lust for such activates.

 

Same as all literature, culture is a very important aspect the author needs to consider. Sebold displays many cultural and traditional significant scenes within the development of the characters, and in turn ends up creating a completely new culture- heaven, or as Sebold calls it, the “in-between”. Once Susie enters the in-between and realizes she is given a choice to move on or stay, she meets a new friend of her age also who shows her how the in-between operates and in which manner actions may work in the in-between. There are many unique qualities that the in-between possess, and Susie takes advantage of all of them. Sebold expresses every dynamic of how individual people and traditions, like Susie’s friends and family, handle tragic losses- including Susie herself.

 

Frozen in her development, Susie still develops vicariously through her sister and by watching the people she cares about from the in-between. “My sister was growing up before my eyes”(P.144). It was true. Lindsey was going places Susie never had the opportunity to go- Lindsey was leaving her adolescent stage in her development and beginning into her young adult life. And since Susie died at fourteen, she would never know how anything beyond how it would feel unless through her sister. “My sister sailed away from me into a place I’d never been. In the walls of my sex there was horror and blood, in the walls of hers, there were windows” (P.125).

Alice Sebold’s writing style is so descriptive she makes the reader present while Susie tells her story. She sends her readers through a plethora of emotions while her story is read. Her readers share memories with Susie of her almost love, loss, and sadness with her as she watches her family from above. Her readers are given a new sense of understanding when it comes to life and death the way individuals perceive and live it. By transporting her readers into a place they have never been, Susie’s mind is explored in the most unique of ways. I highly recommend The Lovely Bones. It is, in my opinion, a story that must be read at least once in a life-time. Full of experiences and diversity, the plot shares many twists and insights. After-all, Susie was not dead; she was simply in essence of the things and people she cared most about.