Alright, so today I finished Lucky by Alice Sebold. And I really did enjoy reading it. It was nonfiction written like fiction, which I like I've decided.
The story itself followed an unusual stucture. It started off with Sebold being raped, which is a very climatic moment in the story I think. Then Sebold escaped from Syracuse and went back home for summer break. At home, away from everyone she had to deal with everyone getting used to the idea and the different treatment she received from those who new her whether they were old boyfriends or the sweet old ladies at church. Sebold decides to go back to Syracuse for school despite the circumstances. In October that year, while going to lunch, she walks past her rapist on the street. She rushes into the restaurant to avoid him. When she comes out she makes sure that he is not around anymore, but while walking back they walk past her and he says, "Hey girl, don't I know you from somewhere?" (which I found utterly despicable.) She rushed back to school, told her professor she couldn't come to class that day, called her parents, and called the police. (This is what I found to be the beginning of the next rising action.) Then police come and they try to figure out who it is and such....eventually, they find him and during by summer they are in court. I LOVED the trial. It reminded me so much of Matlock, which is the show I watch when I'm sick. It also reminded me of the Supreme Court case that I sat in on for a moment during freshman year, that too was a rape case. I hated the defendant's lawyer, I couldn't even believe that the defendant would plead not guilty if DNA evidence made it obvious that he was guilty. Finally, after a very trying time preparing for court, waiting for the judges decision, etc. the verdict was decided and Sebold won. (I consider this the next "climax.'')
Sebold seems to get on with her life as if the trial was the thing that helped her to get over what had happened. She still deals with everything, and is still reminded of it through out the rest of her years at Syracuse and I thought that the book was settling into a nice denouement(one of my favorite words). Sebold's in a lecture during her last year at Syracuse and when she get really bad stomach pains and calls her friend to come pick her up, her friend takes her home where she finds several police cars. Her roommate and friend Lila has been raped. (this I found to be another climatic moment.)
Lila isn't like Sebold. She doesn't want to find the guy who did this to her, she just wants it to be over. Sebold doesn't understand. Lila doesn't want to talk about it, she just wants to forget about it. For the first time Sebold has a close friend that shares her experience and thinks that she can help her friend. But her friend doesn't need the kind of help that she wants to give her. This really hurts Sebold. She ends up struggling and loosing her best friend.
Sebold skips graduation to get out of Syracuse once and for all. She goes to the University of Houston to get an M.A. in poetry, but drops out. She falls into bad habits, drinking, smoking, drugs: her favorite heroin. She goes through a rough time for a couple of year and finally just snaps out of it. She gets her life back on track, gets healthy and goes to a therapist. Sebold is finally as close where she wants to be as she can be. And it's a good ending...
I honestly didn't see it coming when her friend was raped. I didn't expect it. It's something I would expect more in a novel, but alas she was. Overall this really was a great book. I plan to recommend it to anyone who needs help finding good nonfiction.
The story itself followed an unusual stucture. It started off with Sebold being raped, which is a very climatic moment in the story I think. Then Sebold escaped from Syracuse and went back home for summer break. At home, away from everyone she had to deal with everyone getting used to the idea and the different treatment she received from those who new her whether they were old boyfriends or the sweet old ladies at church. Sebold decides to go back to Syracuse for school despite the circumstances. In October that year, while going to lunch, she walks past her rapist on the street. She rushes into the restaurant to avoid him. When she comes out she makes sure that he is not around anymore, but while walking back they walk past her and he says, "Hey girl, don't I know you from somewhere?" (which I found utterly despicable.) She rushed back to school, told her professor she couldn't come to class that day, called her parents, and called the police. (This is what I found to be the beginning of the next rising action.) Then police come and they try to figure out who it is and such....eventually, they find him and during by summer they are in court. I LOVED the trial. It reminded me so much of Matlock, which is the show I watch when I'm sick. It also reminded me of the Supreme Court case that I sat in on for a moment during freshman year, that too was a rape case. I hated the defendant's lawyer, I couldn't even believe that the defendant would plead not guilty if DNA evidence made it obvious that he was guilty. Finally, after a very trying time preparing for court, waiting for the judges decision, etc. the verdict was decided and Sebold won. (I consider this the next "climax.'')
Sebold seems to get on with her life as if the trial was the thing that helped her to get over what had happened. She still deals with everything, and is still reminded of it through out the rest of her years at Syracuse and I thought that the book was settling into a nice denouement(one of my favorite words). Sebold's in a lecture during her last year at Syracuse and when she get really bad stomach pains and calls her friend to come pick her up, her friend takes her home where she finds several police cars. Her roommate and friend Lila has been raped. (this I found to be another climatic moment.)
Lila isn't like Sebold. She doesn't want to find the guy who did this to her, she just wants it to be over. Sebold doesn't understand. Lila doesn't want to talk about it, she just wants to forget about it. For the first time Sebold has a close friend that shares her experience and thinks that she can help her friend. But her friend doesn't need the kind of help that she wants to give her. This really hurts Sebold. She ends up struggling and loosing her best friend.
Sebold skips graduation to get out of Syracuse once and for all. She goes to the University of Houston to get an M.A. in poetry, but drops out. She falls into bad habits, drinking, smoking, drugs: her favorite heroin. She goes through a rough time for a couple of year and finally just snaps out of it. She gets her life back on track, gets healthy and goes to a therapist. Sebold is finally as close where she wants to be as she can be. And it's a good ending...
I honestly didn't see it coming when her friend was raped. I didn't expect it. It's something I would expect more in a novel, but alas she was. Overall this really was a great book. I plan to recommend it to anyone who needs help finding good nonfiction.
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