Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113730 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-16
• Released on: 2007-10-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an author in possession of a good story must be in want of an arresting first sentence. Alice Sebold s new novel, The Almost Moon, contains one of the best opening lines of any book published this year: When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. It is eerily reminiscent of Albert Camus s L Etranger and certainly had me hooked from the start. --Evening Standard

Metro
'A cracker...Boy does she know how to tell a story...Devote a full day to this sad and exhilarating novel.'

Sunday Herald
'This is a powerful, intricate and beautifully written novel...a worthy successor to The Lovely Bones.'

Customer Reviews

When All Is Said and Done
"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily" -Helen

There you have it. The first sentence of the book gives us the premise and summarizes the story. This is a book that is difficult to like, difficult to read from cover to cover, but at the same time as a lover of mysteries I had to find out. The 'who done it' was upfront, the 'why' was to be discovered. Insanity can take many guises and in this family dysfunctional is secondary to insanity. The entire family seems distorted and out of sync. It is as Helen's mother has stated - there are them and there is us. The 'normal' and the 'fucked up' and we know from page one where the family stands.

After the killing, the cleaning and wrapping of the body, Helen begins to tell us the story of her life. A mother who was always difficult, who would not even go to the rescue of a young boy hit by car outside her home. A daughter who could never ever do anything right in her mother's eyes. A father who was held hostage by some unseen behaviors by her mother and who only escaped through suicide. When all is done, Helen visits her friend and finding she is not at home, visits with her son. After killing your mother, emotions are high as you might expect and not held in check. Some may say the inevitable occurs. It is strange to find humor in a story of murder and deceit. But it is here, subtle but humor does emerge. The issues surrounding this family makes it pretty clear that no one will escape whole, but why not? What was the grip that kept this family so tightly held? Is it the thread of insanity that runs throughout the years?

The title of the book 'The Almost Moon' is revealing. Helen's dad gave the inside scoop. "The moon is whole all the time, but we can't always see it. What we see is an almost moon or a not-quite moon. We plan our lives based on its rhythms and tides." Is a mother the sum of all our existence?

Recommended. prisrob 10-21-07

Sadly, very disappointing
I bought this book after absolutely loving 'The Lovely Bones'. The opening page, which I read in the bookshop, had me gripped and I had high hopes for it: I couldn't wait to start it. Sadly, I have to say it is one of the most awful books I've ever encountered. It was difficult to read, not because of any flamboyant language, but because it was so 'lumpy', with no natural flow. I found it impossible to relate to any of the characters or the circumstances they found themselves in. I detest giving up on a book but had to really force myself to finish this. It was a chore, a nasty one at that, from page 2 until the end. For me, this book is more like a first-time attempt from a particularly inept author. I do wonder what Ms Sebold was trying to say with this book, what feelings she was experiencing to produce a novel such as this. Perhaps with this insight, I may have understood the story and its purpose a bit more. As it is, I just feel let down.

Extremely well written, scary subject matter handled like the pro she is
Let me get this out of the way up front: Alice Sebold is an extraordinary author. As a fellow writer, I learn a lot from both of her novels just walking through how she handles a scene, or a flashback, or a set of dialog.

Let me also get this out of the way: her subject matter bothers me on levels that I can barely describe. The Lovely Bones was extremely well-written, but, as a father with a daughter, it brought a parent's nightmares to the page. The Almost Moon comes at your from a different tragic perspective, from a middle-aged mother who murders her dementia inflicted invalid mother.

The copy I have read is an Advanced Reading Copy graciously given to me at the recent Book Expo America, so the excerpts that I quote may change in the final copy (coming out in October 2007 according to the book's cover).

The first paragraph of the first chapter sets the stage excellently for the entire book:

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. Dementia, as it descends, has a way of revealing the core of the person affected by it. My mother's core was rotten like the brackish water at the bottom of a weeks-old vase of flowers. She had been beautiful when my father met her and still capable of love when I became their late-in-life child, but by the time she gazed up at me that day, none of this mattered."

For the next 24 hours, Helen Knightly confronts the events that unfold from the act she has committed and reflects on the events of her life that led her to this decision. Her relationships with her mother, father (who died before her mother), her two daughters, her ex-husband, her best friend and her best friend's son all act as mirrors both past and present for the person Helen is, how low of an opinion she seems to have of herself, where that low opinion stems from and how it motivated her decision to kill her mother.

My friend John DeNardo at SF Signal has written that a reader/reviewer reads books and comments on them based on many characteristics: background, mood, etc.. Ms. Sebold's novels certainly bring the reader's family background into play. Having neither parent needing care nor suffering from dementia (at least not that I know of, and as the intro says, I'm the one hearing voices), the book's plot shocked me, continues to shock me, and makes me think. I would surmise that a reader with a family history of taking care of dementia-sufferers or with some other reason to hate one of their parents would be less shocked, may have even contemplated similar actions (whether in fantasy and/or reality), but will also be made to think more by Ms. Sebold's story.

The story made me think, even worry and I continue to roll it around in my head. That, combined with Alice Sebold's wonderfully fluid prose:

"It had been his illness as well as hers. She just garnered more attention. She was always - day in, day out - there. My father had been pity to her blame, warmth to her cold, but had he not, in the end, been colder than she?"

Ms. Sebold has written two excellent novels of difficult subject matter that come off as immensely readable and leave the reader considering the actions in their own context. While I have not read her memoir, Lucky, I am motivated to do so now, to look at her own background and experiences.