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Alice Sebold and Ann Darby (interview date 17 June 2002)

SOURCE: Sebold, Alice, and Ann Darby. “PW Talks with Alice Sebold.” Publishers Weekly 249, no. 24 (17 June 2002): 41.

[In the following interview, Sebold discusses her narrative choices in The Lovely Bones and her plans for her next novel.]

[Darby]: Your memoir [Lucky] focused on rape—your brutal rape when you were a student at Syracuse University in 1981. Your novel, The Lovely Bones (reviewed on p. 40), is about a rape and murder. Was it a relief, or a horror, to re-imagine a rape?

[Sebold]: Oddly, it was a delight, because I loved my main character so much and I liked being with her. It was like having company. I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism
   1. Alice Sebold and Ann Darby (interview date 17 June 2002)
   2. Paula L. Woods (review date 7 July 2002)
   3. Ron Charles (review date 25 July 2002)
   4. Charlotte Abbott (essay date 29 July 2002)
   5. Lisa Allardice (review date 19 August 2002)
   6. Sarah Churchwell (review date 23 August 2002)
   7. Virginia Quarterly Review (review date autumn 2002)
   8. Stephen H. Webb (review date 9-22 October 2002)
   9. Rebecca Mead (review date 17 October 2002)
   10. Gordon Phinn (review date November 2002)
   11. Daniel Mendelsohn (essay date 16 January 2003)
   12. Joyce Carol Oates (review date 20 June 2003)
   13. Claudia FitzHerbert (review date 21 June 2003)
   14. Andrea Dworkin (review date 30 June 2003)
   15. Doris L. Eder (essay date 2004)
   16. Kenneth Womack (essay date 2004)
3. Further Reading
4. Copyright

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