Rating: 
Summary: Lucky
Review: The raw and brutal honesty in Sebold's true-life account of a rape and its legal and emotional consequences is horrifying, disturbing, and altogether difficult to stomach. She is an 18-year-old college freshman in Syracuse, New York, when a man assaults her on a dark road and rapes her. During the aftermath of the attack, Sebold's family members try to comfort her and support her desire to prosecute, but they barely understand. Often Sebold is the most courageous one of all. In an increasingly dangerous succession of events, she turns to alcohol, drugs, and unhealthy relationships to cope with the stigma rape survivors bear. Eventually, the same kind of strength that carried her through the attack and years of the trial resurfaces, and she becomes successful and happy and, as her work attests, an excellent writer as well. This book will be painful, and perhaps helpful, to other rape survivors.
Rating: 
Summary: After Great Pain A Stunted Memoir Comes
Review: Americans can't get enough of Crime TV so American readers may like this book. It delivers bludgeoning description - graphic, straight and true - individualizing the experience of a torture at once the most personal and pervasive, but assuring us the good guys win. Delivered without the annoyance or bother of challenging analysis, and without the awkward courtesy of informed contemporary assistance to others similarly situated, the book asks nothing but that we read on --and most will not help but do so. The paperback will be popular, and no doubt, the made for TV movie.Americans will like a book about an alienated and alienating teen who suffers and survives, all the while sustaining a wide eyed belief she has gone it alone, triumphed over the odds, and by golly, you could too if you would just give the legal system a go. Never mind that this rape survivor finds a note in her file fifteen years later that betrays a difficult truth: Despite her demographics the police do not believe her any more than a thousand other "lucky" victims they have already seen, will continue to see, and see to this day. We wait for the author to divine the appalling significance of this note, to put aside the emerging potboiler, sniff the air, and seriously reconnoiter. We wait in vain. Breathtakingly naïve, the memoir offers us the author's twenty year head start on contemporary adulation of police as heroic. Unfortunately, the odor of disbelief is plain to readers from the outset. It scents the air in every interaction and institution with which the author comes in contact. It steams from her very own pages, but Sebold is the last to know. Even now she does not seem to detect the stench as it wafts from police to an incredulous parent's question, is deodorized by a patient feminist attorney's empathy, suspended by a waif's unassuming ministrations, or ramped up by a slimeball defense attorney's assaults. This undetected fragrance would be bittersweet for readers - she is, after all, only a kid at the time - if only the intervening decade or two and the file information would give the grown up author pause. If it seems to readers that the passage of time and the passing of this file will call for a new and more sophisticated perspective, well, for Sebold, things remain just what they seemed. Reflection on those times, on our own, and on the hard work that makes change possible -- as per Blumenfeld's Revenge, or Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted? No such complications attend this work. But it is a memoir, and so we want to hear her out. If the author is fond of the particular over the pattern, where does she convey why this particular memoir is necessary or just? Beyond personal catharsis, beyond her tedious hair-trigger competitive instinct and unseemly love of celebrity, what justifies this tell-all? What moral vision does this book offer that justifies, for instance, the vivisection too hastily inflicted on her parents and sister in these pages? A rape survivor does not owe us philosophy, but a memoir has to try. What are her motives for writing? What sophisticated view of justice does Sebold offer to balance the pain she delivers the hapless but heartrent young people she describes, real people who will read their offers of aid in paperback caricature twenty years later? What larger purpose recompenses their secrets and sexualities exposed? And most of all, what practical, social, or moral vision does she offer the other victims she "outs", with only the merest scrap of a name change? These are, after all real people whom she describes. It is a testimony to Sebold's talent that she can tell a real story in a real way. But it is her moral failing to have done so recklessly, with so little concern for real others. Memoir is not fiction (at which the author is much better-see The Lovely Bones). And, this is not (yet) TV; these real people weep, and we are asked to watch in a posture of wry detachment, scorned for our squirming. Why? And what are our motives for reading? I do not care, as some reviewers appear to do, whether or not her professors reek of voyeuristic curiosity. Theirs are not the only mixed motives in the sex crime to memoir nexus; why shouldn't a wounded teen find such people wise and diverting? But memoir is not fiction. Did she learn from these professors that it would be enough to relate a 20 year old tale "authentically", no matter the collateral damage? That it is sufficient to say that the world is divided into good, evil, and ridiculous? That cop lingo is romantic? That when evil befalls us naive determination, sharp wits, and an even sharper tongue will yield the good? That the world is full of suffering, but that it is one's own that counts the most? That even if it changes the way the world regards them, unique women should tough it out , tell the violating details, or have them told for them, and words will make things better? What, exactly, justifies this recklessness? This memoir could have been important. It offers genuine, wrenching tales of upper middle class adolescent angst made exponentially more bitter by pointless tragedy, courageously described. But this is a harrowing passage from which the author has clearly not escaped. In this instance, adolescent angst is made more destructive by the author's continuing generosity in sharing it; even now she cannot keep a civil tongue in her head. Some may find this witty and arty and lively but I find it sad, empty, and hopeless. The honesty of Sebold's passages can break your heart, especially for the sense that the author is still lost in a time warp, with nothing to show for it but a drug problem, an enduring mean streak undisguised by considerable literary finesse, and a legal victory over, we hope to God, the right man.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling and emotional.............
Review: While reading this book I had to remind myself that it was in fact a true story. I could not put this book down, I had to know how Alice's life would turn out and how she would come through the terrible event which changed and affected her life forever. It was interesting to see how she not only changed but those around her changed as did their reactions to her.
An emotional and compelling read!
Rating:
Summary: Unflinching and honest
Review: "Lucky" should not be thought of as a "book about rape." It is instead the memoirs -- the life story -- of a woman, which just happens to have rape at its center. This is just as much about growing up, discovering who you are -- seeking love, acceptance, approval -- gaining friendship and confidence -- understanding those around you. Sebold had to deal with a distant father, a neurotic, panic-attack-prone mother, and a sister she could never really connect with. This is, however, an astounding book about dealing with rape, and how the people around you deal with it. In this case Sebold had to unfortunately hear her father's incomprehension at how she was raped if the man didn't have a weapon (he seems to be implying she didn't fight enough), and a therapist who (quite unbelievably) says "I guess you won't be so hung up on sex anymore, eh?" In lucid, lean prose, Sebold bravely lays out the details of her experience, letting you into her wounded mind -- a wound that never fully healed till years later (if ever). Ultimately, what this book tells you is how, when you're raped, it steals who you are. Everything you do -- every move you make -- has a connection to rape. You are not yourself; you are "the girl who was raped." You can't simply date a guy. If you becomes serious with him, he needs to get "the talk." As Sebold points out, her rapist stole her life from her. The book takes you from the rape, her "recovery," and into the trial of the man who committed the crime. I found the book fascinating and I applaud Sebold for writing it. If it has any "flaw" I would point out the section -- the last fifty pages -- taking place after the trial. It's not that I don't want to hear what became of Sebold and how she continued to deal, but somehow things take a slightly TV-movie-of-the-week turn. I know it all happened and she can't change reality, but it felt a little odd and didn't quite fit the simple honesty of the book. When you read it, you'll understand. You can't accuse someone of a cliche when they're writing their life story, but it still feels that way. But, besides this, "Lucky" is a bold, honest, insightful work about an event that changed the author's life forever. I highly recommend it -- for those that have survived, are trying to, or those that want to understand.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful voice
Review: Alice Sebold's Lucky offers a stark window onto the strains and suffering of rape. Sebold's sharp prose, blunt honesty, and rather black sense of humor give the reader that rare feeling of stepping into an author's skin. Where others would shy away, she offers vivid, often horifying picture so that we can know the brutality she suffered. Most importantly, I did not get a sense she was rewriting the history of her attack and her reaction, but rather like she was opening up a journal of dark times. Though at times a hard trip, readers will certainly grow from the experience of reading this work. I urge those interested to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A Determined Young Woman
Review: This memoir of the author's horrible rape and beating while she was a college student, written many years later, is a moving account of a terrible part of her life. Her courage and persistence in seeking justice for herself was admirable because one can only imagine how difficult this was for her. She never gave up during her long journey from fear to hope. Sebold spared no details in this honest portrayal, but she never resorted to whining about it or self-pity. I admire her greatly for this attitude...she is a braver woman that I could ever be. She pushed on, basically alone, showing her inner strength as she battled her demons and the inability of her friends to deal with her rape. I thought that her passage through the legal system was especially well told and revealing. I thought the part entitled "Aftermath" was a bit out of place --it was just sort of tacked on and I really did not need to read about the author's drug use and sex life after college. I would have liked to read about how she dealt with the aftermath of the rape as it affected her relationships with men, her parents, her friends, and her career decisions.
Rating:
Summary: A jewel of a book
Review: Sebold turns the tragic into the beautiful -- all the while maintaining her honesty, sense of self, and wicked sense of humor. Plath reincarnate with a sarcastic edge, if you felt an empty spot after finishing _The Bell Jar_, this novel is for you.
Rating:
Summary: In like a Lion, out like a Lamb but powerful and compelling.
Review: Usually I avoid books like this-it's just so hard to connect with the whole concept of being raped if you're a man with no history of being violent or with being a victim of violence (though I was robbed at gunpoint and bashed over the head with a pistol once). Anyway, I was given this book by my sister who told me that it wasn't the ususal ... and that I would really get caught up in this most unusual of memoirs. My sister was right. The opening 40 or so pages of Ms. Sebold's book are amazing--you are drawn into this very personal and painful memoir with hooks straight our of the best crime fiction--Ross MacDonald and James Ellroy fans take note! And as she dips back into her childhood and adolescene in the first one-third to one-half of the book Miss Sebold paints with seemingly disjointed anecdotal meories a portrait so vivid it simply amazes me. Miss Sebold is a helluva story teller--can't wait for some fiction from this writer. "Lucky" loses steam in the last third of the book--after the rapist is tried and convicted. In telling of her last three years of college and the decade of debauchery (heroin and indiscriminte sex) that follows, Miss Sebold uses the same techniqes that make the first half of the book so powerful, but they fall flat here and just don't have the ring of "truth" or any sense of urgency--the book is just playing itself out. A violent scene where Miss Sebold's companion is brutally beaten while trying to "cop" some heroin on the lower east side of New York just leaves me empty--I have no feeling one way or the other and no empathy at all for either Miss Sebold or the boyfriend we don't even know--perhaps this is the point, but it just doesn't work for me. Still, it was wonderful to read this book and reassuring that a memoir of a brutal rape doesn't have to be a feminist diatribe. Good job, Miss Sebold--I can't wait to read more!
Rating:
Summary: A Perceptive Victim
Review: The author is not only clear about her experience, she maintains her perceptions of those around her as they struggle to reconcile their feelings of her experience. Being the victim is hard enough to deal with. Facing the inability of others to deal with and support her painful experience and emotional transition of healing, and having to be the strong one for others in her quest to move forward is a testimonial to her inner strength that this tragedy obviously brought to surface. "Lucky" is a thought provoking and inspiration read.
Rating:
Summary: Brutally honest, terrifying yet ultimately rewarding read
Review: What happened to Alice Sebold shouldn't happen to anyone. That she survived her ordeal at all is miraculous, but that she found a voice with which to describe her experience with clarity, with tremendous insight and with warmth is almost unbelievable, yet this is exactly what she does with Lucky. As a studen at Syracuse University in 1980, Alice is the victim of a horribly brutal rape as she leaves a friends house. The experience understandably shatters her, but even she does not realize the depth of her feelings or the effect they are having on her life and behavior. She eventually sees her rapist again, and takes us through the trial and subsequent events in her life, which are tied intricately to the rape even though she is unaware of it. The afterward picks up ten years after the book opens as she is still battling with the emotional scars that have not yet healed. That anyone can talk about such horror at all is amazing, but Alice really allows readers inside her head, hiding nothing from them. Her painful interactions with her family and friends as they try to do what's best for her, and as she tries to convince them that she's 'recovered' come across as achingly real as they were for her. Readers, too, can see how damaged Alice still feels even as she tells herself that she's not, and I felt myself rooting for this heroic woman throughout the book, hoping that she would find whatever justice that she could and pick up the pieces of her life. This is no maudlin tale, not at all romanticized or sugar coated, which may be difficult for some to take, as it was for me at times. But I kept reading because I was so amazed at what was being offered, that someone was sharing such a personal experience, something that affects more women than most people know. I am fortunate enough not to know someone who has endured a similar ordeal, although I now think I have some very limited insight into what a person might experience. I applaud Alice Sebold for her bravery in putting forth her story, and I think this book is an important one. It's not an easy read nor one to be taken lightly, but I feel that I learned so much from it. And the fact that this book represents Alice's triumph makes it all the more rewarding.
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