In Lucky, a memoir hailed for its searing candour and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit - as she struggles for understanding ('After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes'); as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and ...
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In Lucky, a memoir hailed for its searing candour and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit - as she struggles for understanding ('After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes'); as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction. In a narrative by turns disturbing, thrilling, and inspiring, Alice Sebold illuminates the experience of trauma victims even as she imparts wisdom profoundly hard-won: 'You save yourself or you remain unsaved.'
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. Outline: -Enormously visceral emotionally gripping and imbued with the belief that justice is possible even after the most horrific of crimes Alice Sebold`s compelling memoir of her rape at the age of eighteen is a story that takes hold of you and won`t let go. Sebold fulfills a promise that she made to herself in the very tunnel where she was raped: someday she would write a book about her experience. With Lucky she delivers on that promise with mordant wit and an eye for life`s absurdities as she describes what she was like both as a young girl before the rape and how that rape changed but did not sink the woman she later became. It is Alice`s indomitable spirit that we come to know in these pages. The same young woman who sets her sights on becoming an Ethel Merman-style diva one day (despite her braces bad complexion and extra weight) encounters what is still thought of today as the crime from which no woman can ever really recover. In an account that is at once heartrending and hilarious we see Alice`s spirit prevail as she struggles to have a normal college experience in the aftermath of this harrowing life-changing event. No less gripping is the almost unbelievable role that coincidence plays in the unfolding of Sebold`s narrative. Her case placed in the inactive file is miraculously opened again six months later when she sees her rapist on the street. This begins the long road to what dominates these pages: the struggle for triumph and understanding--in the courtroom and outside in the world. Lucky is quite simply a real-life thriller. In its literary style and narrative tension we never lose sight of why this life story is worth reading. At the end we are left standing in the wake of devastating violence and like the writer we have come to know what it means to survive. --> Genre: Biography & Autobiography True Story-> the publisher of this PAPERBACK book is Pan The date of this copy is 2002 booksalvation have grade it as Very Good and it will be shipped from our UK warehouse This book is from the Series. Shipping is Free for UK buyers and at a reasonable charge for buyer outside the UK.
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Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Grubby book may have mild dirt or some staining, mostly on the edges of pages.
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Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Ships from UK in 48 hours or less (usually same day). Your purchase helps support Sri Lankan Children's Charity 'The Rainbow Centre'. Ex-library, so some stamps and wear, and may have sticker on cover, but in good overall condition. 100% money back guarantee. We are a world class secondhand bookstore based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom and specialize in high quality textbooks across an enormous variety of subjects. We aim to provide a vast range of textbooks, rare and collectible books at a great price. Our donations to The Rainbow Centre have helped provide an education and a safe haven to hundreds of children who live in appalling conditions. We provide a 100% money back guarantee and are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest standards of service in the bookselling industry.
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Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
A very good read I enjoyed it, not the sort of book that you must keep reading but it is a true story. I preferred her first book "The Lovely Bones"
piafinn
Sep 30, 2008
Taboo
This memoir by Alice Sebold of her brutal rape by a stranger, as a college freshman, was bold, and raw, and disturbing. It came highly recommended, but I kept putting off reading it, because I don't find violence, especially sexual violence, to be entertaining. I also didn't need another reason to worry about my daughter, who lives on campus. I do see her purpose in writing it, though. For herself, first, so she could put it in perspective, and move on. It changed her life and all her relationships. People viewed her differently. She didn't just lose her virginity that night. I think a secondary purpose is for those who read it. Rape is still such a taboo topic, and understandably so, but Sebold tells it like it is, from the event itself, to the arrest and trial, her family's response, and the after-effects, in order to show us what rape looks like, so we can better understand those who survive it. I think her story is still unique, though, because she was raped by a stranger. The few women I personally know of, were raped by acquaintances. It's also rare to get a conviction. It's called Lucky, because she was told by the police, that someone else who was raped in the same tunnel, was murdered and dismembered, so in comparison, she was Lucky. It was well written, and even funny in places, but I can't give it more than three stars because I wouldn't say it was enjoyable to read.
aparajito
Oct 30, 2007
Violence & its Aftermath
In the tunnel where she was raped, a girl had once been murdered and dismembered; the police told this story to Alice Sebold and said that, in comparison, she was lucky. This book is an account of that rape and its aftermath, written with 'mordant wit and an eye for life's absurdities' and an unswerving commitment to truth that spares no one. Fans of Ms. Sebold's magical debut novel, The Lovely Bones, will find both comfort and surprise in Lucky. While they will recognize the voice of a brilliant writer they already know and love, they will find much more to explore in this memoir. Alice Sebold has created another compulsive page turner, and one cannot but be amazed and humbled at her tone; she has achieved what I always thought was impossible, and has crafted a volume that surpasses all restrictions imposed by journalism and autobiography. Lucky does not flinch from brutality and realism, and yet, it manages to offer moments of infinite tenderness and compassion.
SCSUWoman
Aug 30, 2007
Great New Writer
Alice Sebold shows her exquisit awareness of self, both living and immortal in this thrillin memoir. She brings the emotions of her rape to life for her readers in a way that does not shy away from the unspeakable. Her mainpurpose is to show reality as it is and truely "speak the unspeakable". Therefore, this memoir makes us examine the things in our lives that hold us down and shame us because of societal taboos.
kayjay
Apr 3, 2007
Brutal Reality
This is a shockingly brutal story of the rape and beating of a young girl. How the aftermath affected not only her, but her family and friends as well. As Alice struggles to cope with life after this upheaval, creates a book that is hard to set aside. The thing that made me angry and saddened for her is how so many people behaved almost as though it was her own fault. The opposing lawyers in the trial that followed treated her in a very callous manner as did some of the police. Alice prevailed and her attacker was sent to jail but her life was totally changed .
