The way that Sebold organized the chapters has me curious. She jumps right into the graphic trauma of her rape in the first chapter. Normally, most writers would putz around making small talk for the first couple of chapters and then have the rape as the climax. But, here, she makes it the introduction so that you know exactly what her background is for the rest of the story. Especially, when she returns to her home town.
The way that she explains how things look back home, and how she feels that fire has somehow marked her life, has the sense that the narrator has a hole in her soul. There is a dreary tone to her entire life. Her parents were removed from her as she grew up (her mother a panicked addict and her father was a devoted workhorse) and fire marked how she felt about her childhood, and then once she finally has the chance to get away from that scenario, she gets raped. I just couldn't believe that her life sucked so badly and yet she turns it into a story that can help others who have been there (or curious people who just read it for the interest). Even when people she ran into while researching "Alice Sebold's" rape and they claimed to be her best friend, when in fact she had no recollection of these strangers. She kept on going, whereas I think I would've been very upset that these randoms were claiming to be part in this tragedy just to be close to what Sebold calls a "celebrity" life. I think that in no way is a victim should be like a celebrity, they have been through enough, just let them be.
1 comment:
You raise a very interesting point here...how Sebold, in being a victim and also writing about her experience, is made into a "celebrity" of sorts. I wonder how any of us would deal when such status is thrust upon us, especially considering she is "famous" for having survived such a horrific event.
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