Lucky, Alice Sebold

This novel is a memoir written by Alice Sebold about her freshman year in college where she experiences a tragic rape but uses it as a vehicle for self improvement and to develop an altered perception of life and the world instead of as a reason to give up and fall out of everyday life. The title “lucky” gains its meaning from the sequence of events that immediately follow the sexual assault, when Alice is told that she should consider herself lucky since she was just raped, and earlier a woman had been murdered there. The twisted statement serves as the platform upon which Sebold develops her story, showing how something beautiful, herself as an adult woman, could grow out of such an ugly and tragic situation. The aftermath of the crime, right through Sebold's struggle to get justice by prosecuting her rapist, is communicated thoughtfully and poignantly, and the emotions of Sebold come through very clearly in her writing.

I think that this story is not only an interesting but an important one. I think that this book works as a means by which to more clearly communicate the effect of sex crimes on not only the individual but those around them, and I would suggest that any person that knows someone who is a victim of sexual assault read this novel. I would not suggest it to younger audiences, maybe fifteen year olds at the youngest and only with resources available for them if they need to talk or process their feeling and emotions that are sure to come up during their time reading the novel.