The Lovely Bones Analysis

Words: 732
Pages: 3

Alice Sebold, the author best known for the novel The Lovely Bones, in her memoir, Lucky, details the traumatic events that effected not only her college experience but the rest of her life. In the process of telling her story, Sebold addresses issues of sexual assault, dysfunctional families, the legal system, and more. Sebold comes at these topics with brutal honesty and deep, personal insight from start to finish. Sebold jump starts her memoir with the statement, “In the tunnel where I was raped…”, a statement which not only grabs the reader’s attention, but informs that upfront what they are getting themselves into if they decide to continue the book (Sebold, 3). After reading these seven words the inquiring reader either puts it back on the shelf or can’t put the memoir down. For readers that continue with the story, they are met with a wincingly detailed, but painfully true, account of Sebold’s own violent sexual assault when she was attending Syracuse University. Sadly, This traumatic experience is just the tip of the iceberg for Sebold, and her narrative continues as she embarks on a journey for justice. As the life narrative continues, she reports her rape, enables the police to finder her attack, ultimately gets her assailant the maximum sentence after a lengthy and difficult court …show more content…
While they do create a sense of authenticity in their direct back and forth dialogue, the pages upon pages of questions and answers can seem to be somewhat repetitive and never-ending when reading these chapters. This difference in writing style is only more significant when it is placed within Sebold’s writing, which is filled with crisp sentences and strong narrative voice. On the other hand, the transcripts shines an important on the troubling experiences that victims of sexual assault undergo if they are strong enough to prosecute their