Loving The Lovely Bones

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Loving The Lovely Bones

For a long time, I think I was the only person in publishing who hadn't read The Lovely Bones. No more. I finished it after this morning's train ride and am ready to see the movie (Can Peter Jackson please be the director for all books to film?).

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen.

In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets.

With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing.

Anyone who hasn't read this fantastic novel needs to. I can't help hope the movie holds up!

14 comments:

Ashley said...: I'm currently reading this and loving it! It's a tear jerker for sure.

And I am soo excited for the movie; the trailer looks fantastic.; December 17, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Michelle Schusterman said...: Just had to say AMEN to the Peter Jackson thing!! Yesyesyes!

I'm ashamed to say I haven't read this either. It is most definitely on my list, and the movie preview looks fantastic too.; December 17, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Susan Adrian said...: Suzie:

I haven't read it yet either! Though it's been on the *want to* list for a long time...; December 17, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Emma Michaels said...: I am looking forward to the movie. I agree though, I really hope that it holds up to the book because you book was wonderful. Love your post and hopefully it can spread the word about the novel!

Sincerely,
Emma; December 17, 2009 at 6:40 PM
june said...: I started the book, but didn't finish it because I found it too depressing, but I do intend to see the movie. I'd like to give the book another try at some point if nothing else than to see if it jibes with the film.; December 17, 2009 at 6:52 PM
Lisa Desrochers said...: This book has been sitting on my shelf since February, but with all my YA "research" I alway have something else in front of it on my TBR list. Don Maass said that Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is kind of a YA Lovely Bones, so I'm looking forward to that one too.; December 17, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Melissa said...: This is seriously one of my favorite books ever. I really hope the movie lives up to it...I read in Entertainment that Peter Jackson ruins the film, but it just can't be possible. He's brilliant! :); December 17, 2009 at 7:44 PM
TirzahLaughs said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; December 17, 2009 at 11:01 PM
TirzahLaughs said...: I loved the first part of the book but found the ending to be a let down.

Better than most books though.

Tirz; December 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Dee said...: I haven't read it either! But I'll push it to the front of the pile, now!; December 17, 2009 at 11:13 PM
Suzyhayze said...: I loved this book. The beginning drew me right in. It is a great primer for grabbing attention.

I found the story arc strange, and felt she may not have known how to finish the book... But with such a strong beginning, and such a connection to the characters, it didn't seem to matter.

The truest test is memory. I think about that book... I think about the complexity of loss.

I'm also glad it was popular because my work has the "Danger to child" element that many shy away from. Sebold broke some barriers there, I'd say!

Glad you read it!

Happy Holidays Suzie!; December 18, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Corra McFeydon said...: I read this a couple years ago and had forgotten how good it was (is.) That preview gave me chills. Thanks for posting.

(This is Corra at TNBW. Just wanted to pop in and say hello.)

:); December 19, 2009 at 5:00 AM
Lea said...: I'm so excited to see this one, the trailer has me confidant that the movie will be incredible. :); December 21, 2009 at 1:13 PM
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Five Random Things About Suzie

1. I drink so much orange soda, it's probably running through my veins. I've been known to go through a twelve pack of diet sunkist in a day.

2. I'm legitimately nocturnal (or a vampire). I will be so exhausted at two pm that I'm falling asleep standing up - it has happened before, at Six Flags no less - but as soon as the sun goes down I'm wide awake.

3. I have a gorgeous unused $6000 Reem Acra wedding dress hanging in my closet, and it showed up on my doorstep the same day my (now ex) fiance broke up with me. And thank God for that. I wouldn't have wanted to waste that dress on him.

4. Social anxiety plagues me daily. I write a script and practice in front of the mirror when I have to make a phone call, but most people who interact with me have no idea how nervous I am (or perhaps they lie) because I've worked so hard to try to overcome it.

5. I'm actually worried that I will never love my children (when I do have them in the far off future) as much as I love my dogs. I just like animals better than people - they're sweet and innocent and soft and furry - is that so wrong?

quotes

金不一定閃
流浪者不都迷路

"I dreamed you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane
I think I made you up inside my head
I fancied you'd return the way you said
But I grow old and I forget your name
I think I made you up inside my head" ~Silvia Plath, Mad Girl's Love Song

"Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." ~ Robert Frost

"Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds." ~ William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning-...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY

"For deadly secrets strike when understood
and lucky stars all exit on the run:
never try to knock on rotten wood,
never try to know more than you should." ~ Sylvia Plath, "Admonitions"

"The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become." ~ Milan Kundera, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

William Wilberforce: "No one of our age has ever taken power."
William Pitt Jr: "Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. Which is why we will do them anyway."

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." ~ Mark Twain

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." ~ Mark Twain

“You know what I am going to say. I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace.” ~ Charles Dickens, A MUTUAL FRIEND

"I think the idea of life after death is a bad idea. It distracts you from appreciating the uniqueness of the here and now, the moment you are living." ~ Joseph Campbell

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear...Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end." ~ Alan Paton, CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY

"To laugh often and much.. to endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better... To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived, This is to have succeeded." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover or friend, I have changed in their eyes...[Some see it as] a mission, as if ...they can pull me back from the wreckage of that day. Of course, their best efforts are largely useless. No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved." ~ Alice Sebold, LUCKY

"Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared." ~Tupac, The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Confessions

Thursday, December 17, 2009