Title:
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The Almost Moon
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Author:
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Alice Sebold
(bestselling author of The Lovely Bones)
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ADVANCE REVIEW
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Novel to be released as hardcover in October, 2007
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ISBN number:
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0-316-67746-9 / 978-0-316-67746-2
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Published by:
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Little, Brown and Company
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Hachette Book Group USA
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169
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Price:
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$24.99 USD / $31.99 CAN
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In this novel, Sebold departs from The Lovely Bones and offers some gruesome skeletons in the closet of her protagonist. From the first line, this is a story which pulls one in close and yet shoves one away in repulsion, to love and hate her main charactor for her actions, Helen Knightly, as she herself loves and hates. Written in an undeniably powerful voice, something to be expected from this bestselling author, the story is still yet of content many readers may sheer away from immediately. It is a dark novel, a story which takes the reader to realms within where the skin crawls as if skittery spiders had been released en masse.
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Sebold has chosen mental illness as the basis for this novel. I will not give away the whole story, nor even yet the ending, but I will say that the ending was not quite a resolution. The old Biblical quote about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children "unto the 12th generation" comes to mind after reading this book, as do various psycho-babble items about it always being Mom's fault that we are who and what we are.
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Deeper and deeper the story goes, where it stops... well.
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As a voracious reader of widely varied genres, I am always expecting (except in experimental items) to see at least some attempt made to resolve the conflicts thus presented in the printed medium. In this novel, I have seen no such thing. However, I don't see where Ms. Sebold could have taken the story otherwise: the ending is, while incomplete in my eyes, predictable. I am saddened by this. I had expected something very different of this author.
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When I approached the ending and read it through, I automatically turned the page looking for the rest ... and there was nothing else. Just an ending of sorts, the reader left dangling madly on the end of a steely hook held by the hands of an angler who has great skill and style.
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The only other problems I came across were identifications of outside charactors that turned out to be children of the protagonist and, in turn, grandchildren. The relationships were vague at best during the whole story, leading me to turn back and forth in the pages, looking for answers. It interrupted the flow of the tale. That can be altered easily.
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NOTE: The copy I read was an advance copy, and an UNCORRECTED PROOF, not yet for sale. Changes to the novel are possible before its release in October.
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I believe I'd hand Ms. Sebold a red pen and a couple of flags: red for resale hopes (every business person, of which writers are by default in selling rights to their creations, knows that resale is where the real money is), black for the dark dabblings in mental illness without resolution.
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Yes, I would read more of Ms. Sebold's work. I know she is capable of terrific work. This one item simply isn't complete, as I have seen it.
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Special hanks to the Hachette Book Group for a chance to review Alice Sebold's newest work in advance of its official release. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.
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Comments? Questions?
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-- The Fireside Reader
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