These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections—sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent—that happened after I was gone. And I begin to see things in a way that let me hold the word without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the ones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life.” From The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
It’s a trendy novel. You know the kind that everyone is reading and recommending. I’ve wanted to read it ever since I read the first chapter on a book review website, that I can’t seem to recall the name of right now. So despite, my inclination to avoid trendiness, I still read the book and enjoyed it immensely.
Actually, I couldn’t put it down. From start to finish in just over 48 hours. I love a story that drives me, compels me to finish it. This one felt like a mystery thriller, in reverse. Since you start off knowing the victim, the crime and the monster from the beginning, you’re left to explore the actual emotions and workings of a family dealing with grief. Dealing with life. And learning how to embrace the lovely bones of their own lives. And it’s not until you complete the book that you finally resolve the truth about it all. It’s not about uncovering the truth, or slaying the monster, it’s about living.
Even though everyone is doing it, I recommend the story—if you haven’t already read it.
