It took me until two weeks ago to finally read The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) and I loved it despite the hype. In no way did I feel that my expectations, after hearing so many people rave about it, were not met. So I went back for her new novel, The Almost Moon. I didn’t read her first book.
I have to say it was such a departure from TLB that I was initially wondering if I was reading the same author. The tone was completely different, as was the style. I didn’t much care for it’s Virginia Woolf style as it didn’t really feel like Sebold was skilled enough to do it well. The flashbacks felt disjointed and sometimes “dumped” into the story inelegantly. For all the pages dedicated to backstory, the immediate story was incomplete. I guess I can appreciate the method of allowing the reader to continue the story on their own, but I didn’t really feel like I had any idea of where it could go from there. Maybe Sebold didn’t either.
The topic, however, was brilliant and, at times, hit a little too uncomfortably close to home. That being said, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel for any of the characters in the story, least of all Helen. I didn’t hate them, but never felt much sympathy for them. I wondering if that level of apathy in the reader is something Sebold intended, because it just didn’t feel right. I suppose I just never became invested much and about halfway through stopped wondering what was going to happen next. Possibly I was just reeling from all the mini-stories I was trying to sort out in my mind. Oh, how I wish she could have better explored the emotional aspect of living in that type of environment rather than the mundane details of what wacky people do (which are often not mundane, but in this case Sebold managed to make them seem so).
Two particular things that grated on me:
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The reference made to an “exit strategy” for Helen, making note to add that today’s society seems to like that phrase. Puhlease. Way to pull me out of the story and back into my real life political frustrations.
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The brief discussion of Helen’s therapist. Was it really necessary to portray a therapist that inconceivably bad in order to explain that Helen, who clearly could have benefited from it, wasn’t in therapy?
All in all, I’m pretty disappointed with this effort, especially coming off the heels of an incredibly touching, shocking, sweet and sad, introspective, unique novel that I found TLB to be.
Am I alone? Did I miss the point?