Un libro sorprendente. Me enganché a la historia desde las primeras líneas. Alice Sebold narra un duro y violento episodio de su vida - su violación a la edad de 19 años -; mostrándonos como un suceso trágico puede dejar huellas indelebles en nuestras vidas; sin embargo, nos enseña también la fortaleza para sobrevivir a tan horrible experiencia. La buena literatura nos enseña a ser mejores y a curar nuestras propias heridas. Alice Sebold lo consigue.

An astonishing book. I was hooked on it from first lines... Alice Sebold tells us a rough and hard episode of her life - her rape at age of 19- showing us how tragic events leave permanent marks in our lifes but her story remarks too the strength of spirit to survive so horrible event.
Good literature teaches us to become better human beings and to heal our wounds. Alice Sebold achieves it. ( )

This book I won last year in the Highly-Rated Book Group. A book I might never have got from the shelves else. But I glad I read it. It is really gripping.

Alice tells the story about how she was raped when she was 19. And about all the things that follow. Very factual. It's all so clear that there were moment I want to throw the book away angry.

A very gripping read with a story you all the time don't want to be true.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/1... ( )

More book reviews at Voracia: Goddess of Words

It's hard to read, let alone review, a book about rape, but I think that this book it is an important one. Lucky is a memoir about a college student who was attacked and raped in the park by her campus. Despite its difficult subject matter, Lucky reads smoothly. I feel that this is an accessible book for people to read who would like to understand better how to deal with rape, and to see all the ways that it impacts someone.

For me there were four distinct parts of this book (although the writer did not designate them as such – it just felt to me to read like that). The first part was the beginning, in which the actual rape sequence is told right up front. It is hard to digest but is written very clearly and directly. I really felt for the narrator in the next scenes, which immediately follow the rape, in which she goes to the police and is examined and has to tell her friends and family members what happened. At one point she describes something that I imagine must be almost as horrible as the rape itself – having to live the rest of her life as a rape victim:

“I knew exactly what had happened. But can you speak those sentences to the people you love? . . . That question continues to haunt me. After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes.”

The second part of Lucky: A Memoir, for me, described the weeks and months following the rape. I found this part to be lacking because it seemed to me that the narrator wasn’t really dealing with her true feelings. I suppose that that is how it actually happened, though, and she did a good job of making me feel like I was right there with her in that time and that space, even though I often wanted her to do things differently. At times it seemed like she was pushing the rape out of her mind completely, and writing about her college classes and other things that any book about any college student would include. I wanted her to focus more on the issue, but perhaps she dealt with it by not focusing on it. In this part the theme of writing was introduced, which I did enjoy. Sebold dealt with her emotions by writing poetry and fiction. She took classes and seminars by Tobias Wolff and Tess Gallagher. Tess Gallagher is actually a pretty central character in the book, who accompanies Alice to court when she has to confront her attacker (although she’s disappeared by the end of the book without explanation, leaving me to wonder what happened).

The third part of the book, which I really liked, moved on to show how the narrator was intent on prosecuting her attacker. It was easy to cheer for her and she showed a lot of strength and wisdom. She describes the legal process well and at one point she mentions wanting to go to law school so that she can prosecute other criminals (she later decides to pursue teaching instead, and says it became her lifeline and salvation). It seems very fulfilling that the narrator finds some kind of justice and closure in the midst of all her suffering. At the same time, she is still human. I could tell that the rape had affected her and that in some ways it had changed her in a negative way. She seems to use men for own reasons and disregard what they must be feeling. She has a strange relationship with her father that she never quite explores in depth the way I wanted her to. (At times she has a close bond with her mother, who is always anxious and has panic attacks). Through all of these shortcomings, however, for most of the book she seems strong and like someone to whom most readers would be able to relate, despite the horrible thing that happened to her.

The fourth and last part of the book, though, takes a strange turn. I don’t want to include spoilers so suffice it to say that the narrator is no longer the intelligent, strong fighter that the reader had gotten to know and admire. This made me feel like my hunch was correct that she hadn’t been dealing internally with the aftermath of her rape. I was disappointed at her downfall but, more than that, it didn’t seem to make sense to me. I thought that the writer should have spent more time on the last part of the book and less time with the mundane intricacies of college life. I felt there were issues left unexplored in the book.

Overall, I “enjoyed” reading Lucky: A Memoir, although that is a strange thing to say about a rape memoir. I thought it was well-written and that it dealt with some very important social issues. I especially liked how it explored the subject of how different women deal differently with rape, and the need for there to be open dialogue about it. The writing in parts is flourishingly poetic, which was a strange offset for the subject, but it usually worked. I would like to read another book by Alice Sebold to see whether the tone works even better with a lighter subject matter (although, from what I understand, her novel Her Lovely Bones has anything but a light subject matter). I give Lucky: A Memoir three and a half stars and would recommend the book, but be forewarned that the subject matter is obviously difficult.

For more book reviews and other posts of interest to readers and writers, please visit my blog Voracia: Goddess of Words. ( )

Alice Sebold is a brave woman and an fantastic writer. "Lucky" is the story of her rape, as a college freshmen and the 15 years that followed. Like "The Lovely Bones", Ms. Sebold writes with such honesty and frankness, that at times this is difficult to read, but I thank her for her honesty. ( )

self-absorbed, boring, ugly. I dislike Alice Sebold's books.

This book is a shocking, honest and revealing memoir about the authors' vicious, savage rape when she was a college student. Normally I wouldn't want to read a book like this, but the author is Alice Sebold, who wrote "The Lovely Bones', which I adored.That she could recover from something like that and move on, that *anyone* can, is incredible.I certainly learned why so few women actually go through with pressing charges and a trial. Honestly? I don't know if I'd have the courage that Alice showed throughout her ordeal.Not a fun book, but rape is not a fun topic. ( )

I'm really ambivalent about this book.

On the one hand, I understand the impulse & need to write through & past such an enormously life-changing experience. On the other hand, I found myself skimming my way through chunks of the book about two-thirds of the way through because it just started to get disjointed & flat & jarring in some way that I just couldn't bear to read.

The first 100 or so pages are excellent, especially if you can get past the first chapter - an excruciatingly detailed explanation of what happened to the author. It's ironic that she notes at some point in the book that an essay she wrote for The New York Times Magazine about the experience was quoted in the "Trauma" part of a book on trauma & recovery & this inspired her to figure out more about what she needed to do to move forward - ironic because I think I'd still include her solidly in the trauma category & that makes me very sad for her & angry that this happens so often. ( )

This is the true story of the rape of Alice Sebold and some of the experiences that she had after the rape. I really enjoyed the first part of this book, but once Alice went back home with her parents it started to drag a bit. When I realized that I was basically forcing myself to read this book about halfway through, I just skimmed through the rest of it and read the ending.

I think that the things Alice had to go through were horrible, both the rape and the horrible way that she was treated by some people after the rape. I was most shocked by her father's initial reaction and the reaction of the psychiatrist that her mother took her to. Since her father was a bit of a jerk, I loved the part where she let the dog eat biscuits on his blue silk chair (which she was forbidden to sit in) and took pictures of it to give to him as a framed gift. That was priceless! It's amazing that Alice has kept her sense of humor after everything that she has been through. ( )

After reading one of Alice Sebolds other book The lovely bones I was extreamly curious to see her inspiration behind it. Lucky definetly pulled from personal experiances. It was a little bit hard to read because Alice Sebold went throught so much. She got raped on her way back to her college dorm, got into drugs and other stuff. I enjoyed comparing it to her other book but towards the end I started to lose intrest. Although, I was inspired by how she overcamegreat obsticles and in the end became a best selling author. ( )

I was gripped in the beginning of this book but soon found myself lost and bored. I absolutely adored The Lovely Bones so this was a great let down for me. ( )

Lucky is the true account of novelist Alice Sebold's savage rape whilst a student at Syracuse University in the early '80s. With incredible candour and occasional dashes of odd and jarring humour, Sebold retraces her long and potholed road to recovery. It's not an easy read, and Sebold's parents - the mother a recovering alcoholic and the father an incredibly insensitive fop who at one point asked Alice why she didn't just run away from her attacker - are just two of many unpleasant characters readers will encounter. ( )

Intense and desturbing, but weirdly catchy. Every girls nighmare. This book tells the story how the young girl got raped. I found the author gave a lot of description that was grusome. She was able to do this because it was her own personal story. Reading a short part of the story, I am interested in how she gets over this horror.

Nicole V ( )

The true account of Alice Seabold's rape as a college freshman, how she changed and grew after the experience, and was instrumental in bringing her attacker to justice. I wish I'd had this book long ago; when I was in college in the early 1970's, a good friend of mine told me about an earlier rape. I was emotionally stunted myself at the time, and had no idea how to respond. Looking back now, I cringe at the lost opportunity to help a friend who I now realize did a hard and courageous thing in opening up to me that way. Sebold used this experience in a positive way when she wrote her later fine book of fiction about a rape/murder victim, "The Lovely Bones". ( )

I didn't like this book. First, it didn't ring true in many parts. I felt like she was embellishing many of her interactions. Second, I didn't really like her. Had this been a fiction book, she would have been an unlikable character that few people could identify with. Does that make this a bad book? No. It was well written for the most part. The afterword seemed rushed, but otherwise well done. It just struck me the wrong way. It's self-indulgent, like her. ( )

Powerful from the brutal beginning to the end. ( )

This novel was by far one of my all time favorites. I constantly found myself never wanting to put it down, and to always keep reading ahead. Just from the beginning of the novel, Alice Sebold automatically sets the mood for the book. Her usage of detailed and descriptive words, is just an understatement. The majority of the book is on the more "mature" reading level, and really prompts the reader to get into it and think. After each chapter, Sebold left the reader with something to think about, which in turn kept me wanting more! Lucky is truely one of the most amazing novels out there, and really tells Sebold's story. ( )

Lucky is Alice Sebold’s autobiography of her brutal rape when she was an 18-year-old Syracuse University freshman. Sebold, author of the popular fiction book The Lovely Bones, chose the title for her life story from a policeman who told her that another girl was murdered in the same spot and that Alice was “lucky” by comparison. This book stands out as more than a violent crime memoir because of her point of view and her style.
Point of View
Not only does Sebold's point of view enhance this narrative, but without it, this memoir would be much less effective. From the very first sentence (“This is what I remember.”), the author’s credentials as an expert are clear: It is her story, and she is going to tell it to you bluntly and with immense frankness. She takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride from her shame and self-loathing, on to her anger and hatred, through her months of sexual promiscuity and drug use and finally toward her healing. What emerges from this first-person account of a tragedy are bravery, self-confidence and hope despite the violence and subsequent heartbreak. Her point of view allows the reader to get a peek through her eyes; and whether or not the reader has been a victim of a violent crime, Sebold shows each of us how to cope with pain and loss and find our way back to wholeness. And finally, she speaks with authority as she becomes determined not to be beaten down and to see justice served.
Style
The author’s style surely leaves its mark on the reader. This story is told with passion bordering on obsession as we watch the author unflinchingly go from unimaginable pain and desperation to triumph and determination. This precisely written memoir opens with the specific and explicit account of Sebold's rape and continues to be precisely detailed and chillingly honest throughout. Her word choice is plain and direct. Her style is frank ("You save yourself or you remain unsaved."), and she does not beat around the bush. The story is told simply and directly, with no excuses from the victim or theories from outside “experts.” And yet, in the midst of it all, Sebold’s quirky sense of humor brings light moments to this very heavy and bluntly told account. Family and friends bungle their attempts to comfort and support her, and she views their efforts with wit. Her style clearly reveals a story that is disturbing and thrilling, and yet inspiring as the reader roots for the author to get past her sense of betrayal, hurt, and lost trust. ( )

http://www.monniblog.com/2008/05/luck... ( )

After reading Sebold's first novel, The Lovely Bones I vowed to read her again as soon as possible. The Lovely Bones was an eloquent book, told from the point of view of a 14-year old rape/murder victim looking down on her family from Heaven. Lucky is Sebold's account of her own rape. The book is absolutely riveting. Reading about rape is difficult for me, as I am sure it is for most women. The respect I gained for Sebold when reading The Lovely Bones compelled me to read Lucky. I felt I owed it to Alice Sebold to read her story, and now I know I was right. This woman deserves our respect for her courage, clarity, intelligence and her sheer presence of mind when dealing with facing her rapist, family, friends, the court system, the police, lovers, teachers--everyone and everything in her life. ( )

One of the most difficult things to read I've ever picked up. So gut grabbingly realistic I felt like I was living through it with her. Reccomended for everyone impacted by rape ( )

The strength of Alice really shines through in this memoir.

Alice Sebold, a student, was raped at 18 and when meeting her assailant on the streets a few month's later she has no hesitation but to report it to the police and prosecute. She hopes then that she can write a line under this event, but later having to deal with the loss of a friendship (but because it's a spoiler I won't go into) she realises life will not be so straightforward. Alice also had to deal with the fact that her mother suffered panic attacks through life and could not always be there physically to support her daughter, which must have been dreadfully hard for both of them. We also see how Alice deals with the relationships with the opposite sex, which held so many different feelings and thoughts for her.

This account by Alice Sebold of her rape and the way she tries to cope shows a great inner strength, however also shows the devastating stress that she suffers from the event, which initially she does not give full credence to as she doesn't realise how much this has taken a hold of her. This memoir is warm, it's uplifting, and also so terribly sad. Alice tells this account in a very non dramatic and straightforward way, and yet is still so full of feeling.

I'm not sure who to recommend this book to, as although I found it a gripping and emotional read, I do wonder if it would overwhelm some people and empower others, but I don't believe I'm here to judge.

Review here:
http://bookannelid.wordpress.com/2008... ( )

This is one of my favorite books. I have some problems with the pacing, mostly at the end when Alice has hit rock bottom and is pulling herself back up - the book slowed down too much for me. Overall, though, I love this book for its frankness, its clear and incredibly focused attention to detail, and for Alice herself. She tells her story and you feel you've lived it with her. ( )

Lucky is a thought provoking book that helps readers understand rape from the victim’s perspective. Written in an honest manner, it explores the rational and sometimes irrational reactions of everyone involved - whether victim, friend, or family member.

Seabold opens the book with a vivid description of her brutal rape. Initially, this makes it a difficult read because it forces readers to live through a brutal act. However, it also helps to expose a reader’s preconceived notions and biases. Seabold describes her struggles to return to a normal life and she honestly discusses societal issues that favor the criminal and penalize the victim. This is a good read for anyone looking for some insight into a difficult issue. ( )

Listened to this tragic, graffic description, of rape and violence commited against Alice Sebold. She is very brave to put her story into book form. I think those who are victims of a violent crime would benefit from reading this book. Alice's writing is very direct and honest, although the content is very heavy and disturbing.

Thanks Alice, for sharing your story. I hope it will help others to a place of safety and recovery. ( )

Getting right to the point, Alice Sebold opens her memoir recalling her rape at Syracuse University. She details what happened after, the trial, and life beyond. She's refreshingly open, honest while describing her reactions, her families reactions, and the reactions of everyone else around her. The details themselves are not the easiest to read, especially when you remind yourself this is not a work of fiction, but what really happened to the author, but it is a good read and very eye-opening. ( )