Lucky: A Memoir, the book

Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold is the story about her rape the last day of classes in her Freshman year at Syracuse University.

Alice was a virgin when she was raped coming from a dysfunctional family in Pennsylvania, the youngest of two daughters of a reserved, stoic college professor father, and an alcoholic mother plagued with anxiety attacks.

This story is laid out in all the sordid and stark details of the rape itself and recounting during the trial of her rapist. Sebold's greatest contribution, perhaps, is her description of the stigma she feels attached to her as a rape victim by her friends, her family, the police and other representatives of the criminal justice system.

It seems that later in her life, though not as well described, Sebold struggles with romantic relationships, heroin and perhaps other drug addiction, and work.

The strength of this book is the depiction of the rape and the special status assigned in our society to rape victims. The weakness and disappointment is the lack of similar detail and clarity on the way this event effected her relationships with her family, friends, and her later life.

The title of the book, "Lucky", is sarcastic humor Sebold adopts when she is told by police that a previous rape victim had been brutally murdered and dismembered after her rape and she was only raped. Therefore, she is lucky.

"Lucky:A Memoir" sensitizes the reader to the brutality and life changing consequences on the victim of this crime, and yet it is not clear, other than shock and outrage, what the author wants the reader to take away from her account.

I recommend this book with some reservations because of its graphic depictions, its lack of focus, and other than catharsis, it's ambiguous purpose.

The thing I am taking away from the book is a greater sensitivity to the isolation, taintedness, and stigma that victims feel because of the reaction of others when they find out about the crime perpetrated against the victim.

Link: Amazon.com: Books: Lucky : A Memoir.

Comments

[Kathryn]

I perused a copy but found I could not purchase or read it. You see, the year she was raped, I was also working at Syracuse University, and I knew the location well. There but for the grace of god... Years later in Austin I was raped, certainly not in a circumstance so brutal, but it had a long-term impact. Her experience is chilling, and I decided not to subject myself to that. You summed it up well -- it's more of a catharsis for her.