With apologies to Alice Sebold, I have to admit that I have not read The Lovely Bones. My reading tends to be patchy at best–I usually get around to bestsellers after everyone else on the planet has read them. But I think I deliberately avoided The Lovely Bones, in print and film, because, although my daughter is no longer a teenager, the premise of the book played on the worst of my unvoiced and only partially acknowledged fears for her when she was the age of the heroine in the story.
Then, tonight, watching the Oscars, I saw the clip where Stanley Tucci, playing Mr. Harvey, lures Susie into his underground den in the cornfield, and I had the most bizarre flashback. I had a recurring nightmare as a small child. We lived in the country then, with pasture in front of the house and a creek with steep banks that curved around three sides in the back. In my dream, I was walking along the creek when I discovered a fireplace-like opening in the side of the bank. Curious, I went in, and found myself in a cozy underground room. There were small, bald (sorry, Stanley!) gnome-like men who invited me to tea. And then–the worst horror my four or five-year-old mind could conjure–ate me. (Yeah, I’m sure the psychologists could have lots of fun with that. And this, of course, was the point at which I would wake up screaming.)
Years later, when I read the Narnia books for the first time, I thought that the bankside den of my dream was a little like a warped version of Mr. Tumnus’s home. But now I see that the set designer for The Lovely Bones must have had a sneak pass into my subconscious, because Mr. Harvey’s den was snatched whole right out of my dream.
How very odd, and a little unsettling. Do children come equipped with an atavistic fear of caves? Some sort of Jungian archetype, perhaps? Silly, maybe, but I’d just as soon not revisit my own particular childhood demons. But I may have to read Alice Sebold’s novel.
April 18th, 2010 - 11:02 am
I am an enourmous fan. I am waiting anxiously for the next book. Will Duncan and Gemma have a child of their own? Will they eventually move into Erica’s house when they need to give up the house they are living in on loan? will they get to work together officially again? Please write quickly.
April 20th, 2010 - 3:44 pm
I’m writing madly. So glad you like the books! But if I answered all your questions, you’d have nothing to look forward to in the next books!
June 22nd, 2010 - 4:08 pm
I have read all of your books, and can’t wait for a new one. When is it coming? You are my favorite, my dear.
Carolyn St. John
July 31st, 2010 - 6:13 pm
Dear Deborah,
This makes two of us. I am not the only person on the planet who has successfully eluded Lovely Bones. It wasn’t easy at first, it was everywhere, and everyone was reading it. So what. Everyone read the Kite Runner too-I actually bought that and several pages in and it was in the ‘give away’ bag. Whew.
You know what? I cannot read those type books. The last time I let material like that into my mind, I had nightmares for about 10 years.
So, I can really relate and sympathize with your dream experience and the fear perhaps of ‘refreshing’ it somehow….not necessary.
Anyway, I savor each new adventure you write and like your other fans, look forward to the next chapter in the lives of Gemma and Duncan. They are nice people, very hard working and trying their best for their kids, their community and themselves. What good role models and inspirations for folks everywhere! Keep it up and hope you enjoy your characters as much as we do!
Nancy Armstrong
PS Is Gemma pronounced with soft or hard “G”? We have asked and and gotten different responses from our brit relatives.
August 9th, 2010 - 6:50 pm
Have just finished reading Necessary as Blood, Deborah this is your best ever. I can’t wait for your next one. Thanks for the many hours of reading you have provided, should be saying from sunny Australia, but it is cold, wet and miserable so curling up in front of the wood fire here in the country reading is the only thing to do.
Margaret in Meredith, Victoria, Australia