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Lucky: A Memoir

Lucky: A Memoir

List Price: $11.95
Your Price: $8.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent - worth 4 and a half stars
Review: This book held me captive at night over a period of a few days, and I spent a few days sleepwalking at work as a result. The book is Alice Sebold's true story of her struggle to find herself again after enduring a violent rape. It is a rich story that manages to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Being young and finding your path in life is hard enough, but Sebold's journey is compounded by a mother who has problems with anxiety, and then compounded further by being raped by a stranger.

In addition to the story of how rape changed her, Sebold tells the story of where she came from and the people who shaped her. Her personality is portrayed as complex, and her marvelous sense of humour is revealed, even despite the darkness of the book's subject matter. My favourite illustration of this is when she plays a prank on her uptight and stodgy father while they are staying in separate beds in a hotel room. The results of her sneaky trick are hilarious! I won't give it away by telling you....but I still find myself smiling about it when I think about it.

The reader follows Sebold's changed version of herself as she picks us the pieces of her life in the aftermath. She goes through the stages of grief in a way that is unique to Sebold, proving that we all cope differently when faced with a traumic event. Sebold releases her feelings and her anger through her poetry, with the help of her friends, and yet there still remains a large sense of loss in her. Perhaps this book was finally her vehicle to closure and healing, as is suggested in the Aftermath that follows the story.

This book will shock you, sadden you, and yet still entertain you. Her writing is intense and just wonderful, and I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: an amazing book
Review: Ms. Seabold outdoes herself with this newest book "Lucky". I am a past vicitm myself and so throughout the book was able to see the same despair she had felt, the same feelings of something isn't right in my life...She does a brilliant job of telling it like it is. This book is even better than her other book "The Lovely Bones".
I also would like to recommend Nightmares Echo. I was fortunate enough to get both books and read them one after the other.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Impressive
Review: While I was not impressed by Alice Sebold's Lovely Bones (considered it to be severely overrated), I was deeply affected by her memoir, Lucky. Her account of her rape at age 18 was the most gripping peice of writing I have ever read; I actually felt physical pain. While feeling physical pain is not usually my goal when reading for pleasure, I credit Sebold for writing with such authenticity that I actually felt I was experiencing it myself (unfortunately, it also had the effect of heightening my fear of rape). The rest of the book discusses the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, including the rape trial that took place the following year, and is peppered with commentary that comes with 20 years' hindsight. There is something to be gained from this memoir -- quite simply, raw insight into the experience of rape. While I agree with other Amazon reviewers that Sebold does not delve sufficiently into the long-term effects of her rape (the "rest of her life" is crammed into a short portion at the end of the book), I appreciated this book so much for what it was, and didn't look further to what it could have been.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Strength of One Woman
Review: The book keeps me interested throughout it's entirety.
It's sad yet it shows courage in the face of hardship.
After reading this book I felt like I travelled with Alice Sebold and she lived through her life. She writes splendidly and at the end of her novel I was in awe. The fact that it was all a true story and she had the strength to write about it and tell the world just made it even greater.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Shockingly Sweet
Review: I read Alice Sebold's book "The Lovely Bones". It was very very good. "Lucky" on the other hand was even more shocking. Not only was it mor vividly depicted but it was real. The first chapter is gruesome. Sebold depicts her experiences so well that it paints horrible images in your head.
The story however does have happy endings. But you are left feeling eerie and having a sense of relief. Sebold tells her story truthfuly and relives all of her painful moments. It is an educational masterpiece.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lucky
Review: I thought this was an awesome book!If you an take some time out to read it!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Yes, Lucky
Review: It was with relief that I discovered that I was one of many "skimmers" of this book. I would have discontinued after the first twenty pages if I did not have to read this as a (albeit poor)reading group choice.The inability of the author to differentiate between important and less important detail led to a flat narrative. This is one of those times when, to have allowed a few things to remain unsaid, would have added greatly to the impact of the story.

Another reviewer has referred to collateral damage, and this aspect of this book horrifies me. There may be "veiled" references of which I am unaware. I am aware, however, of one instance in which a family which has also suffered tragedy, is accurately named. An encounter with them is described with crudity, and the family tragedy is rehashed, seventeen years later, when there are still family members left to read and remember. Why? I am at a loss to undertand why Ms. Sebold's tragedy entitles her to wound others who wished her no ill. Is this still a part of her own illness?

Ms. Sebold is "lucky" to live in a country in which the press is free; publishers generous and in which forgiveness still prevails in the hearts of most - especially our parents.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A book that gives you hope
Review: After reading this book, I really do feel like I was given a bit of a gift, of hope. No, I haven't been raped, but just to know that someone who went through such a horrible thing and has come out on top, though struggling still I'm sure, is wonderful! I think it gives us all inspiration to move beyond the things that have held us down or hurt us. This book was a bit more than just Alice's rape- it was about her life, her family, her friends. It didn't overwhelm you with too much dialogue or pure reflection on the rape. This book is really a story. It's simple and pure. A read that I think I'm a bit better for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A compelling memoir that reads like a novel
Review: I give Alice Sebold high marks for taking a memoir of personal tragedy and turning it into an unforgetable and dare I say, entertaining read. The subject matter is brutal (a violent rape),and her family rife with dysfunction (Dad is distant and cold, Mom is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Sis is overachieving and lonley). Alice is the glue that binds this fragile family together, and her rape and it's aftermath brings out the best and worst in those around her. This is a well written, page turner of a book that I would recommend highly. If you enjoyed Alice Sebold's novel "The Lovely Bones", I can guarantee you will not be disappointed with this effort.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Honesty with Humor
Review: I read "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold before "Lucky". I absolutely loved her first novel and immediately picked this one up. Her writing about such awful subjects, such as rape, are so brutally honest and non-apologetic, but she has a way of describing it that doesn't make you feel disgusted or that you just can't read anymore. She takes you into the depth of it and then pulls you out just before it gets to be too much. She did this in "Lovely Bones" also, which deals with an even harder topic than this. During the entire book I felt as if I was listening to a friend and I actually missed her when I finished the book. I highly recommend this and am looking forward to her future books. She has definitely become one of my favorite writers.


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