Independent Reading Log #3

10/22/12

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Pages 54-112

1    1.      Summary of what I read: In this passage Susie is, of course, still up in heaven looking down on her family as they cope. Susie tells us of her connection with Ruth in the months previous of her death. At school, Ruth was a misunderstood individual and Susie related with and sympathized for her. After her death, Susie tells of how Ruth and her first kiss Ray Singh become united as friends because of the common interest of Susie. Also in this passage, Jack, Susie’s dad, becomes suspicious of Mr. Harvey. Mr. Harvey is in fact the murderer and Jack has a feeling that he is, but there is nothing to tie him to it except for Jack’s gut feeling. The time has also come for Susie’s memorial service. Her grandmother comes in from out of town and helps the family feel a little bit more normal again. Though the ache of loss is still in all of the family, the grandma helps take a little bit of the burden off even if only for a little while.

2    2.      Important quote from the text: “During the final hymn, as my family stood, she leaned over to Lindsey and whispered, ‘By the door, that’s him’” (Sebold, 112). I think that this is an important quote because it states the first time that Lindsey recognizes Mr. Harvey as her sister’s murderer. It is at Susie’s memorial service and her grandmother points him out to her. Of course, there is no factual evidence that he is the murderer but Jack believes so and that is what the grandma and Lindsey are going off of. Before this, Lindsey had no one in particular who she thought had committed the crime, but now she had her father’s gut feeling and that was good enough for her.

3    3.      Connections to the text: Once again I do not feel an especially strong connection to this text. A great deal of this passage talks about the way the different members of the family cope with their loss of Susie and how broken their family is becoming. This has never happened to my family so I do not really know exactly how they feel. Buckley, the youngest child in the family, has just been told about Susie’s death and now believes that he sees her sometimes. I thought that part was really nice because I like to believe that when someone little, such as Buckley, goes through something so traumatic there is someone there to help him along. Susie is there and I think that helps him through the grieving process in a healthier way than the rest of the family.