The Lovely Bones

Alice Seybold

Picador/ Pan MacMillan (2002)

 

Susie Salmon, aged 14, has been murdered. A friendly but somewhat strange neighbour lured her into a cornfield while she was on her way home from school and killed her in a little room he had dug out under the cornfield. Now Susie is in her private version of heaven watching those below trying to cope with her disappearance and presumed death.

 

Susie has friends in heaven, including other murder victims, and life is quite pleasant for a 14 year old. Heaven is really just a place of nice memories that she can relive day after day. There is, however, one niggling dissatisfaction.

 

"I wasn't gone. I was alive in my own perfect world, but in my heart I knew it wasn't perfect. My murderer still haunted me."

 

Susie sees her family break up, her father go to pieces obsessed by the man he knows murdered his daughter, and her younger sister become stronger as she matures and tries to hold the family together. Then Susie has her chance. One of her previous girlfriends is quite psychically sensitive and as she has grown up she has become aware of Susie’s ghost, always there and trying to communicate. Briefly she makes a huge sacrifice and surrenders her body to Susie’s ghost so Susie can do what she must. Will it be revenge on her murderer? Can she keep her family together?

 

It’s hard to describe the book. It deals with subjects that are almost taboo in society, but does so in a sensitive and graceful way. Alice Seybold captures the slightly naïve style of a fourteen-year old girl perfectly, and it is this innocence and exploration of growing up that makes Susie so believable. It’s not a ghost story as such, nor is it a revenge or murder mystery, so don’t expect overtones of horror. Even Susie’s description of her murder is done with taste and brevity. There is even a slight tone of sympathy for Susie’s murderer as she finds out more about his lonely, deprived boyhood.

 

What brought the book to my attention is that Peter Jackson, the New Zealand film producer, has now made it into a film. In a limited test release by Paramount it was widely criticised by American audiences - perhaps understandable as it is low on action and high on personality. This would not make it appeal to U.S. audiences, even though the quality of the acting was praised.  I suspect we will see it as direct-to-DVD rather than a cinema release. Currently it is slated for release in January 2010.

 

 

vatribflorish

 

 

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

 

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