etc.

I’m usually wary of bestseller titles, not because I am a book snob whose literary tastes transcend the usual bestseller dreck, but mostly because I like to let the book review hum die down before I pick up that title that has everyone humming in the first place. But this is one of those books that I haven’t been able to escape: a patron recommended it to me at the Reference Desk ages before I’d even heard of it; Amazon had it in my “Recommendations” list for weeks; friends were buying it and sending me “share the love” discounts; I was bumping into it at every turn in every Chapters store I went to. It seemed I couldn’t get away from it. So last Friday, Mike and I were killing time in Chapters while we waited for our movie to start, and I’d left my bag in the car and was therefore caught bookless for an hour. So I started reading this one in the store. And then I bought it. And then I didn’t want to go to the movie, because there’s not enough light in there to read. In truth, part of the reason why I was trying to avoid this book was because the storyline sounded like a whole lot of schmaltz to me: girl gets raped and murdered, watches over family from heaven, narrates story. But schmaltzy it is not. There’s nothing other-worldly or remotely paranormal about this book, and the best parts aren’t even the bits where she explains her death and dismemberment. The reason why this book works is because Sebold tells it with elegance, making it about family and loss and the grieving process; it’s not maudlin, it’s not drippy, and it’s certainly not afterlife-ish. And the inordinate sentimentality for which it is being criticised? Didn’t see it.