Independent Reading Log #4

10/26/12

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Pages 113-208

1. Summary of what I read: In the beginning of this passage, Susie tells about her sister Lindsey’s time at a summer camp title the Gifted Symposium. Samuel, Lindsey’s boyfriend also goes and Susie watches as their relationship evolves. This is one place where Lindsey is not known as the sister to the girl who was horribly murdered and she is extremely grateful for it. She thoroughly enjoys her time there until it is time for the final project. The project is to plan the perfect murder and Lindsey can hardly believe it. When she returns home her family still acts the same as when she left. She can feel her mom drifting away. Her mom has started an affair with the chief detective working on her daughter’s case, Len Fenerman. Jack still believes that Mr. Harvey has killed his daughter and one night this thought gets the best of him. He wanders out into the cornfield following a little light he saw out his window. Suspecting that this is Mr. Harvey he brings a bat and ends up attacking a girl named Clarissa who was out just meeting her boyfriend. This act only pushes the mom further away from Jack.

2. Important quote from the text: “Our heartache poured into one another like water from cup to cup. Each time I told my story, I lost a bit, the smallest drop of pain” (Sebold, 186). I think that this is an important quote because it tells of the first time that Susie meets the other girls who have been killed by Mr. Harvey. She knew that there were others and she had an idea of what he did to them, but she had never seen them in real life, or in the “Inbetween.” The "Inbetween" is where she is stuck in right now. It is in between Heaven and Earth. I am imagining that she was beginning to feel extremely alone and irritated that no one was getting any closer to catching Mr. Harvey. She went through something truly horrible and to be able to talk about it with other people who could really understand almost exactly what she went through must have just been a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. They could relate to and understand exactly what she went through and was still going through.

3. Connections to the text: In this passage I really felt sympathy for the Salmon family. As expected, they are having a hard time coping with the loss of Susie and it is tearing their family apart. Susie’s mother is drifting away from their family and the remaining children are becoming more dependent on their father. Jack still really believes that Mr. Harvey has murdered Susie, but her mom agrees with the police and thinks that Jack is going too far with the whole thing. They are not the madly in love couple that they use to be and Susie’s mom knows that and finds comfort in Len. I’d like to believe that in a situation like this one, parents would find a way to stick together and work through it while still keeping their love and appreciation for each other alive. But sadly, I know that is not really the way it usually goes. I wish that they didn't have to lose their marriage especially since they had already lost their daughter in such a horrible way.