I am really enjoying this novel by Alice Sebold. I find it intriguing that life could get so difficult that Helen would want to murder her mother Clair. That she had imagined doing so throughout her childhood is an insane prospect to me.
Sebold is good at gradually building up the information for the reader; rather than exposing all the facts at the outset, she hints and suggests things so the reader can make their own judgements and ideas, before exposing the truths.
One aspect of the novel I am currently finding intriguing is the profession of Helen. She was overweight in her childhood but she is slim now, and she poses nude for art classes. Her utter exposure is described as shedding herself of the hold her mother has on her and being raw and exposed and free.
I am also interested in the relationship Helen has with her father, as I feel that this is the main relationship that has affected her - rather than her relationship with her mother. I find the unravelling of details about this relationship captivating.
Helen seems bereft of emotion. She doesn't seem to care about anything with passion. Perhaps her mother has stripped that from her, as caring for her mother seems like all she ever did. Helen doesn't even appear to care for her daughters the way a mother should; perhaps she learned this from her own mother. She doesn't even seem to care when she murders her mother!
Perhaps this will all be a dream, and when Helen wakes up, she will wake up next to her mother to find her very much alive, and then they will both appreciate eachother more. That would be a lame, but happy, ending
No comments:
Post a Comment