Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones will open in theaters on January 15th. Directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings and King Kong) and co-written by Fran Walsh (Jackson's wife and co-producer) and Phillipa Boyens, the film adaptation features A-List stars, including Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon. I'd highly recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. The book has so many subtle layers that it will be interesting to examine how its depth is transferred to the big screen. In an interview with The Daily Record Jackson agrees that despite his extensive film experience, The Lovely Bones was not an easy novel to adapt. "It's an incredible book that hits you emotionally when you read it, but it isn't structured as a film," he states, "it was a challenge figuring out how to reorganize the events to make them more film-friendly. It really was the hardest thing we've done in our lives." Click here to read The Daily Record article.

I agree with Jackson that The Lovely Bones is an "incredible" book and I'm very much looking forward to comparing the book with the film version. In fact, The Lovely Bones would make a great choice for a book club. Wow! What a great idea. I'm going to suggest a book club/movie combo night to my book club right now...

Here's my brief description of the book that you are more than welcome to copy and send to your fellow book clubbers:
 
Susie Salmon disappears on December 6, 1973, but instead of leaving the reader to wonder about her whereabouts, Susie's thoughts haunt the pages of the book, fading in and out as her family survives the horrific aftermath of her murder. Susie's presence offers a birds-eye-view of a family coping with unspeakable loss while at the same time conveys the eeriness of a young girl able to view her own murderer. Surprisingly reassuring, Susie's narrative offers a glimpse into the possibility of afterlife rarely found in modern literature.

“If you stop asking why you were killed instead of someone else, stop investigating the vacuum left by your loss, stop wondering what everyone left on Earth is feeling,” she said, “you can be free. Simply put, you have to give up on Earth.”

"This seemed impossible to me.”

But more than rumination over a tragic death, this novel explores the internal drives that fuel relationships, family and sex, in all of their destructive and desultory capacities. Despite its quiet insistence on Heaven, the story centers on the fallibilities that make up life on Earth.

Lucky
Alice Sebold’s memoir shares her experience of surviving rape. The book spent 22 weeks on the Times paperback Bestseller list.


And Alice's latest novel...
The Almost Moon