So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
Continue »
I read this book after my mother had died while I was pregnant, having not lived to meet any of her now seven grandchildren. I miss my mother every day. This book helps me believe she is not fully gone. The Lovely Bones is the only thing I've ever read that has given me hope that there is an afterlife of some meaning and a place in the world where good triumps over evil. I was afraid to give it to my little sister who quit work to return home to care for our mother in her final illness, but finally worked up the courage when she was nursing her newborn 15 months after my first was born. Why was I afraid? I don't know exactly. Some of it was worry that she'd be hurt, some of it was that I would offend, and part of it was that I was afraid she wouldn't get it -- that my reaction was too absurd to be shared by another. Since then I've come to know many people as profoundly moved by this book as she and I were.
This is a beautifully written, thoughtful, real story of people's inner lives when faced with tragedy unimaginable and the need to carry on. It is a book everyone should read, whether parent or child. It says much about our society without preaching or judging yet leaves the reader wanting to be a better person so as to create a better world.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(4 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Customer Comments
mother of two has commented on (1) product.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
mother of two, January 12, 2010
I read this book after my mother had died while I was pregnant, having not lived to meet any of her now seven grandchildren. I miss my mother every day. This book helps me believe she is not fully gone. The Lovely Bones is the only thing I've ever read that has given me hope that there is an afterlife of some meaning and a place in the world where good triumps over evil. I was afraid to give it to my little sister who quit work to return home to care for our mother in her final illness, but finally worked up the courage when she was nursing her newborn 15 months after my first was born. Why was I afraid? I don't know exactly. Some of it was worry that she'd be hurt, some of it was that I would offend, and part of it was that I was afraid she wouldn't get it -- that my reaction was too absurd to be shared by another. Since then I've come to know many people as profoundly moved by this book as she and I were.This is a beautifully written, thoughtful, real story of people's inner lives when faced with tragedy unimaginable and the need to carry on. It is a book everyone should read, whether parent or child. It says much about our society without preaching or judging yet leaves the reader wanting to be a better person so as to create a better world.
(4 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)