Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Sebold, Alice - Joyce Carol Oates (review date 20 June 2003)

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Joyce Carol Oates (review date 20 June 2003)

SOURCE: Oates, Joyce Carol. “Trauma, Coping, Recovery.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5229 (20 June 2003): 15.

[In the following review, Oates calls Lucky an “exemplary memoir,” asserting that the memoir is original and direct.]

Alice Sebold is the author of the first novel The Lovely Bones (2002), one of those bestsellers described as “runaway” to distinguish them from more lethargic bestsellers that merely slog along selling copies in the six-figure range. Though deftly marketed as an adult novel with a special appeal to women, The Lovely Bones is in fact a young-adult novel of unusual charm, ambition and originality. Its most obvious literary predecessor is Thornton Wilder's Our Town, in which the deceased Emily is granted omniscient knowledge of family, friends and community after her death; a subtly orchestrated wish-fulfilment fantasy that allows...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. 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)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Alice Sebold