The Lovely Bones

So I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to think about this book except that I’m supposed to like it.  Love it, even. The heroine is an innocent and lovely girl but haven’t we seen that before?  A strange pretty ingénue?  Hi Ophelia, hi Bella (Beauty and the Beast, not Twilight).  I found this novel boring.   It took me at least six sittings to read it over four years.  And I found the narrator unconvincing and insincere.  I had to pause and re-write so many sentences in my head that the book seemed jarring and unsettled.  Overall I thought the premise was original and intriguing, but the story just didn’t follow through on the promise I felt the first couple of chapters offered. 

I have to say: my mother, who is a fantastic writer, loved this book, and I spent the entire read trying to figure out why I couldn’t agree.  At first I could attribute my misgivings to the fact that the main character in the book shared a name with someone I love so dearly that I couldn’t wrap my brain around something so horrifying happening to her.  So I gave it (yet again) another chance.  Ultimately, this book just wasn’t for me.  I’d like to hear other opinions.   So far all I’ve heard was “It’s so good!” but no substance or reason why.  So tell me, am I wrong?  I’m currently 84% through; maybe I’ll have a revelation tomorrow.  But it’s been a long road, forcing myself through this book.  Disclaimer: I LOVED The Help so don’t bring me any of that Oprah-book-club-makes-it-suck-BS.

PS Spoiler alert.  Obvi the girl dies in the opening of this novel and the disintegration of her family is heartbreaking and (I am sure but I whish was not) a very real portrayal of families in similar situations but for god’s sake, there’s a reason I don’t read Jodi Picoult and maybe that’s my entire problem here.  Why this is on Rory’s (or my mom’s) book list, I will never understand.

Great books about sadness (if that’s what you’re in the mood for):

A Prayer for Owen Meany

The Sun Also Rises

This Side of Paradise – obviously, Fitzgerald in general

A Staggering Work of Extraordinary Genius

Perks of Being a Wallflower

A Confederacy of Dunces

The Bell Jar

Lafcadio (my favorite childhood book)

Tuck Everlasting (2^nd favorite)

UPDATE:

Ok so football sucks tonight and baseball is over for the day.  GREAT baseball game but I still wish football would have been more entertaining.  Or, fine, give us a boring game, but at least my pick should have won.  Vikes at home lose to Tampa Bay?!  Any given Sunday (or Thursday), I guess.  Even the Packers fan in my league picked the Vikings this week.  Sheesh. [[By the way, any thoughts on Ben & Kate?  That show is getting a lot of this-week-on-Fox love during the Series]]

So I thought I’d try to finish Lovely Bones.  Here we go.

Ugh giving up.  This sentence:

I had left him for hours every day for eight and a half year as I had left my mother or Ruth and Ray, my brother and sister, and certainly Mr. Harvey, but he, I now saw, had never left me.

HE WHO?!  Who is HE?  That sentence sums up why I can’t finish this book and even more supports why I cannot fathom why other, smarter people love it. 

“he” in that sentence could be:

-       him

-       Ray

-       my brother

-       Mr. Harvey

And no, context didn’t matter.  84% it remains.