Don't hate me. You should really just feel sorry for me that I have so much ridiculous time on my hands :-/ Anyways, I finished this today and thought I'd put my comments down before I forget. I'm going to put them in a comment so you can just read this and not the comments until you're ready! The first thing I looked at when finishing the book was the upcoming movie's Web site. I am SO excited about this movie (Dec. 11!); although, I'm sure they're going to change a lot. About the Author... Here's something about Alice Sebold that I thought was really interesting (courtesy of Wikipedia): "When she was 18 years old and a freshman at Syracuse, she was attacked, beaten and brutally raped in the tunnel to an amphitheatre. After some months at home Sebold returned to Syracuse to finish her bachelor’s degree
and to study writing. Months later, while walking down a street near
the Syracuse campus, she recognized her rapist and reported him to
police; she later testified against him, and he received the maximum
sentence." Some more interesting Wikipedia facts about Sebold:"She used heroin recreationally for two years, though claims she never became addicted." "...she became a caretaker of an arts colony, earning $386 a month and living in a cabin in the woods without electricity. She would write under a propane lamp." And read this about her next novel (creepy): "Sebold's third novel, The Almost Moon, continued what The New Yorker called 'Sebold's fixation on terror.' It begins: 'When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.'" |
I really liked this book. I liked the constant opposites that Sebold presented -- like Mr. and Mrs. Salmon and the way they each dealt with their grief. Or Ruth/Ray and Susie's actual friend (whose name I can't even remember) -- the friend ends up just clinging to her boyfriend and actually using a mean story about Mr. Salmon to gain popularity; Ruth/Ray weren't that close to Susie but respected her memory more.
I don't think it was a coincidence that Susie brushed by Ruth and formed the connection between them -- I think the way she described it, Susie thought it was accidental, but I think that is a sign that there is a bigger power controlling more than she thinks.
I thought it was extremely weird when Susie possessed Ruth. I don't understand how this fits in with the rest of the book. I just thought it was really out of place and weird. I get that she just wanted to have sex with Ray so she would pass that point of growing up that she never was able to and/or to make it a beautiful thing and get over her brutal rape. However, what the hell happened w/ Ruth!? Also, I can't believe that all they did was have sex! I get that it was something they both really wanted, but couldn't they have done it once and then used the rest of the time to, idk, find her killer!? talk to her parents?! I was really confused and weirded out by this. Also, I'm sure this f'ed up Ray's future with women.
I liked the poetic ending, but wish he had been brought to more justice.
I also am a little confused with "heaven." Earlier, Susie says she's knows there is more to it than her little perfect world because Franny was assigned to her from some higher power. But, does she ever find it? It kind of sounds like she's in the In-between forever; I mean, her grandfather has been there hella long.
Also...um whoever took Buckley's charm thing he had taken from Susie's room. I can't remember what exactly it was, just that before the dad has a heart attack, Buck accuses him of taking it. I don't think he took it (he seemed surprised by the accusation), so who did? Where did it go? Weird.
I like the message that trauma can cause people to be closer and have stronger bonds (thus the lovely bones connecting people out of horrible events).
Yeah overall I enjoyed the book. I agree with a lot of your questions. The entire sex scene I was going "tell him where your body is, you're like ten feet away from it!" Frustrating :/ I did like that Susie got to experience some grown up things through that, though. I think Ruth's spirit went "up" somewhere. The book kind of made it sound like Ruth did it on purpose, like astral projection or something.
I think the concept of "heaven" in this book is using the idea that everyone has a personal heaven that is different from everyone else's (I know that's the concept of the in-between in the book, but for actual heaven, too). So even though her grandpa showed up, it wasn't "him" so much as her representation of him in her heaven... idk it's a difficult concept, one I'm not sure if I really agree with. I think Franny makes some comment on how you can achieve a perfect heaven if you completely let go; which to me implied that, even in heaven, people don't achieve perfect heaven because we always want to hold on to the things we lose.
Yeah I was glad the guy died, but falling in a ditch wasn't quite justice to me. Especially since they apparently NEVER find her body; their family never gets that kind of closure.
The thing from Buckley's room was the shoe piece from the Monopoly game. They never did resolve who took it; that was pretty random.
I was honestly really surprised that the parents seemed to figure things out. The mom seemed really out of there. I did like how complex of a character she was, though. The conflict she felt between being a parent and what she thought she should do, opposed to all the other things she wanted from life.
Monopoly shoe! Ah. I'm glad you remembered. Yeah, that was weird and now I really want to know who took it! Was some crazy person in their house or did the dog eat it?!
I was surprised about the mom too. Although I guess she realized that the only way to get over Susie's death was to just deal with it, rather than running away. But she seemed pretty committed to the latter...
He was also like four when he had that shoe. It's very likely he just lost it and is blaming it on somebody else lol.
I guess... lol