THE LOVELY BONES

THE LOVELY BONES
Alice Sebold
Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, 328 pp

Now this is peculiar. Just in recent weeks, I've read two books that portray a person murdered, ascended somewhere from life, observant of the people she's left behind, and fascinated by all. The first was Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning (more on that another time). The second is The Lovely Bones, now a major motion picture, as they say.

What a commanding point of view a "ghost," or spirit, character gives the author. Here a 14-yeaar-old girl named Susie tells the story of her own brutal rape and murder and then, from a sort of heaven, views events and times from the present back into the distant personal pasts of her fellow life players. Susie studies the dreams and desires of her family, her friends, and her killer, immersing herself in all their stories, told and untold.

Conversations come to her intact, from any age and any person: the day Harper's mother left his father, for example, and is seen fading away into a barren desert landscape. Susie also peers into life's small mysteries, such as the source of a certain dress, borrowed by the surviving sister, Lindsey, from Susie's closet after her death, though Lindsey has no idea of the dress's origins (the dress belongs to dead Susie's friend, Clarissa, who will never get it back). Indeed, a spirit narrator gives new meaning to what we call the omniscient point of view.

On the surface, "The Lovely Bones" is sad, tragic, a chronicle of one life stopped way too short in its tracks. But as Susie's family works through the pain and grief of losing her, her spirit hangs in the background spurring them on, hoping for the best, almost willing them to happiness.

The New York Times Review of Books called the book mesmerizing. I'm sorry to say I often found it stultifying. Great concept, well-drawn leading character, and one thousand more details about small events than I could cope with. I found myself skimming paragraphs about 50 pages in, then scanning pages, then multiple pages.

Some people skip to the end, but I never can. Gotta see what the author is going to do with the characters. The book drew me in but didn't hold me. I couldn't stick with the self- and other-analytic meanderings. Also, the style some called lyrical I saw as over-blown, with adjective-crammed descriptions teenagers write and see as beautiful. OK. The narrator is 14 years old. So I guess I can give Sebold the benefit of the doubt.

Actually, I give the author much more than the benefit of the doubt. Sebold is a crackerjack story-teller and, along with a complex story, has created a version of heaven that's intriguing and promising. Like every other reader, though, I wanted Susie back--back in school; back on the school staircase with her almost-boyfriend; back with her father, building ships in bottles; back and growing up. And she's dead. The way Sebold serves up hope with the sadness is a small miracle of her writing craft.

Oh, and a note to the publisher: Spare us, please, the "reading group guide." How kindergartenish do you see us that we need little questions to guide us to understanding a book? Who is reading the book? Some goof somewhere who doesn't know her or his own questions to ask? I had plenty and I'm sure other readers have plenty. Green up, guys! The ghost of a tree just told me you are wasting paper.