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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
I stayed up til 4 or so reading this. I'm not quite done, because I had to force myself to put it down and go to sleep.
Okay, so I finished it. That last chapter, Aftermath, was very jarring as it leapt from graduation to "So, then I was doing heroin ..." but, as a literary device, it worked to show the chaos and turmoil she was feeling before she was really able to confront and deal with her own rape as well as Lila's.
Okay, so I finished it. That last chapter, Aftermath, was very jarring as it leapt from graduation to "So, then I was doing heroin ..." but, as a literary device, it worked to show the chaos and turmoil she was feeling before she was really able to confront and deal with her own rape as well as Lila's.
Amazing.
I put off reading this for a long time, because I knew her rape occurred while she was a student at Syracuse, so I didn't want to terrify myself, but that's actually not what I came away with at all from this book. Yes, the events in her life are brutal and terrible and heart-breaking, but it's a book about survival.
I put off reading this for a long time, because I knew her rape occurred while she was a student at Syracuse, so I didn't want to terrify myself, but that's actually not what I came away with at all from this book. Yes, the events in her life are brutal and terrible and heart-breaking, but it's a book about survival.
I do not know how I find books that are often a soft subject to read about. I can't recall why this paper back book was on my shelf or where it came from but I was in need of something to read. Alice Sebold begins to tell the first hand record of her rape as a college student. Personally rape hit close to home for me and always has mixed emotions...I started this book with a "why did I pick it up attitude" and I ended with an " it wasn't so bad", there are some parts that are very vivid and hard to read. I was amazed at how open and insightful she is to the thoughts and feelings of the way her life turns out before, during and after. The accounts of her family I am sure were not easy to share but it's amazing to see the stages of a rape victim from begining to end. Each women's journey is diffrent there are two kinds of victims one's that don't let the rape define who they are, seek conviction and learn to move on and then their are other who want to burry it and forget it. Alice was brave she didn't burry it and she honestly tells the struggles she had to reclaim her life as changed as it was from the action of one man.
Once, I had a paper due the next day and I was forced to buy the books I needed at a book store--they were all checked out at the uni library. One of the books was a biography and while in that section I happened upon this book. I bought it, thinking it'd be a nice reward after I finished my paper. When I got home I decided to read just the first sentence to see if I would like it. I didn't put the book down until I finished it the next morning. It is that good.
From the arresting opening, this book grips you and carries you along on a vivid and electrifying, journey that sadly is one too many young women are still enduring today, many years after this was written. From the author of “The Lovely Bones”, this is a true and horrifying story of a young woman’s brutal rape and the aftermath.
That she was one of the far too few victims who found redemption of a kind in the successful arrest, conviction and sentencing of her rapist doesn’t detract from the fact that the experience profoundly damaged her and destroyed her sense of personal safety and security perhaps for all time. This is the nature of abuse. It never ends. It’s like a virus. Once contaminated, the victim may survive, but the organism is irrevocably altered.
In an afterword to the book, recently included, Alice Sebold states that she objects to the recent trend to favour the word “survivor” over “victim” in conversations about sexual abuse. Essentially this is the book’s harrowing but crucial message. Victimhood is definitively conferred at the first moment of violation and calling it something else is counterproductive.
That she was one of the far too few victims who found redemption of a kind in the successful arrest, conviction and sentencing of her rapist doesn’t detract from the fact that the experience profoundly damaged her and destroyed her sense of personal safety and security perhaps for all time. This is the nature of abuse. It never ends. It’s like a virus. Once contaminated, the victim may survive, but the organism is irrevocably altered.
In an afterword to the book, recently included, Alice Sebold states that she objects to the recent trend to favour the word “survivor” over “victim” in conversations about sexual abuse. Essentially this is the book’s harrowing but crucial message. Victimhood is definitively conferred at the first moment of violation and calling it something else is counterproductive.
I have owned this book for many years. I have always found reasons not to read it. After stumbling across it collecting dust on my book shelf (yes...I have had it that long, it is a dtb not an ebook) I figured it was time. I thought I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to read this book, I was wrong. I'm glad I read it but it wasn't an easy book to read. I blame it for my strange dreams. It was a book that needed to be written but not one that everyone can or should read.
Wow. What a book. This is the true story of the author's brutal rape and her recovery. She is so brutally honest and the book was so detailed that I could not put it down. The description of the rape was hard to read in such detail but I think it was important for the book for the readers to be able to relate even a little bit to her story. Hearing how her relationships changed with her friends and family was difficult to imagine. One scene that really stood out for me was when she tried to get her father to understand what happened to her and why she didn't fight more. People so often judge and blame the victim. In this book, she talks about that frequently and how she actually tried to protect others from their discomfort. She was lucky to have a lot of support and one teacher that helped her have the strength to face her attacker in court and actually convict him. This was a book of strength and courage. It was well worth the read
Although I enjoyed Lovely Bones, this was too much for me. I respect her for writing it, but personally I couldn't handle it. I can't not recommend it because her story needs to be told, but it wasn't for me.
Downgrading from three stars to one. Sebold wrongfully accused and ruined a man’s life for nearly 40 years, and then profited from it through this “memoir.” It is tragic what happened to her, and she made a mistake she continues to fail to admit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/nyregion/anthony-broadwater-alice-sebold.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/nyregion/anthony-broadwater-alice-sebold.html