 | |
| Author | Alice Sebold |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 291 |
| ISBN | 0-316-67746-9 |
| OCLC | 85830839 |
| 813/.6 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3619.E26 A79 2007 |
The Almost Moon is the third book and the second novel by the American author Alice Sebold, author of the memoir, Lucky and the best-selling novel The Lovely Bones.The Almost Moon was released by Little, Brown and Company in the United States on October 16, 2007. [1]
The professional art-class model, mother, and divorcee, Helen Knightly spontaneously murders her mother, an agoraphobic who is suffering from severe dementia, by suffocating her with a towel. But while Helen's act is almost unconscious, it also seems like the fulfilment of a long-cherished, buried desire, since she spent a lifetime trying to win the love of a mother who had none to spare. Over the next twenty-four hours, Helen recalls her: childhood, youth, marriage, and motherhood. Helen's life and the omnipresent relationship with her mother rush in at her as she confronts the choices that have brought her to that crossroads. Partly absent-mindedly, partly desperately she tries to conceal her crime, and in doing so ropes her ex-husband into the conspiracy.
The novel received mixed reviews from literary critics. While some lauded the story for its unflinching portrayal of violence and mental illness in America, others found it messy or unconvincing. Eileen Battersby of The Irish Times described the novel as "comparable to Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides (1993), is a candid, at times horribly funny and often beautifully touching exploration of one woman's realisation that her life has been swallowed, or rather cancelled. The genius which guides The Almost Moon is its absolute, horrible, multiple truth; its staggering clarity." [2] Helen Dunmore of The Times notes that, "Chapter by chapter, Sebold peels away the layers of her narrator's misery and self-deception, and creates an extended and sometimes blackly comic critique of a popular literary genre." [3] While Kim Hedges of the San Francisco Chronicle concludes that the novel is "simultaneously uncomfortable and absorbing". [4] Similarly, Lee Siegel of The New York Times described the book as "so morally, emotionally and intellectually incoherent that it's bound to become a best seller." [5] In Literary Review , Carole Angier wrote: “Instead of awakening you to tragedy as The Lovely Bones does, as all good writing does, The Almost Moon makes you want to keep your eyes firmly closed.” [6] Michael Antman of PopMatters asserted that The Almost Moon is "vastly more resonant and real than the fairy tale that made her name". [7]
However, Anna Shapiro of The Guardian called The Almost Moon "unrealistic, but it's leavened with realistic description". [8] Writing for Village Voice, Elizabeth Hand was similarly critical of the book's subject matter, noting that, "the book is emotionally false... it is implausible that people would react to the murder as they do." [9] Sam Anderson of the New York Magazine criticized the novel for its similarity to Sebold's second book, The Lovely Bones, noting that, "it’s tempting to think that Sebold is self-plagiarizing strategically here, Faulkner style, in order to knit the books meaningfully together—but unfortunately there’s no real evidence of this. I wonder, instead, if her imaginative territory is just so small that we’ve already had the full tour." [10]
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1996.
MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell Colony or "The Colony", but its board of directors shortened the name to remove "terminology with oppressive overtones".
Helen Dunmore FRSL was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer.
Alice Hoffman is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer, best known for her 1995 novel Practical Magic, which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name. Many of her works fall into the genre of magic realism and contain elements of magic, irony, and non-standard romances and relationships.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
Bryony Lavery is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play Frozen. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography Tallulah Bankhead and The Woman Writer's Handbook, and taught playwriting at Birmingham University.
The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by American writer Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. The novel received critical praise and became an instant bestseller. A film adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, who personally purchased the rights, was released in 2009. The novel was also later adapted as a play of the same name, which premiered in England in 2018.
Alice Sebold is an American author. She is known for her novels The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon, and a memoir, Lucky. The Lovely Bones was on The New York Times Best Seller list and was adapted into a film by the same name in 2010. Her memoir, Lucky, sold over a million copies and describes her experience in her first year at Syracuse University, when she was raped. Anthony Broadwater, who was incorrectly identified as the perpetrator by Sebold, spent 16 years in prison. He was exonerated in 2021, after a judge overturned the original conviction. Consequently, the publisher of Lucky announced that the book would no longer be distributed.
Lucky is a 1999 memoir by the American novelist Alice Sebold, best known as the author of the 2002 novel The Lovely Bones.Lucky describes her experience of being raped and beaten when she was eighteen in a tunnel near Syracuse University where she was a student, and how this traumatic experience shaped the rest of her life. Sebold has stated that her reason for writing the book was to bring more awareness to rape and rape survivors. The memoir sold over one million copies.
The Last Samurai (2000) is the first novel by American writer Helen DeWitt. It follows a single mother and her young son, a child prodigy, who embarks on a quest to find his father. Despite selling well and garnering critical acclaim on publication, it was out of print for almost a decade; when reissued in 2016, it received renewed praise and accolades.
The Lovely Bones is a 2009 American supernatural thriller drama film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It is based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel of the same name and stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan. The plot follows a girl who is murdered and watches over her family from "the in-between" and is torn between seeking vengeance on her killer and allowing her family to heal.
Rachel Cusk is a British novelist and writer.
New Moon is a 2006 romantic fantasy novel by author Stephenie Meyer. The second installment in the Twilight series, the novel continues the story of Bella Swan and her relationship with vampire Edward Cullen as she enters her senior year of high school. When Edward leaves Bella after his brother attacks her, she is left heartbroken and depressed for months until Jacob Black becomes her best friend. However, her life twists once more when Jacob's nature reveals itself and Edward's sister decides to visit.
The Gathering is a 2007 novel by Irish writer Anne Enright. It won the 2007 Booker Prize.
Reece Ritchie is an English actor. He is known for his film roles, such as Moha in 10,000 BC (2008), Bis in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), and Iolaus in Hercules (2014). He starred as Jay in the British drama television series White Heat (2012). He played Zed in American fantasy-adventure television series, The Outpost (2019–2021), and stars as Lt. Spencer Lane in the American sci-fi television series, The Ark (2023).
The Book Club Bible is a non-fiction anthology of literary review, with a foreword by Lionel Shriver, whose novel We Need to Talk About Kevin has its own prominent entry. Aside from providing a synopsis for each book, the text also features background information on the author, suggested comparison volumes, a detailed historical context and starting points for group discussion. The intention of the anthology is to encourage book club members to seek out and discuss important contemporary or classical works.
A Spell of Winter is a 1995 literary gothic novel by Helen Dunmore, set in England, around the time of World War I. The novel was the first recipient of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996.
Jacqueline Jill Robinson is a Canadian writer and editor. She is the author of a novel and four collections of short stories. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and literary journals including Geist, the Antigonish Review, Event, Prairie Fire and the Windsor Review. Her novel, More In Anger, published in 2012, tells the stories of three generations of mothers and daughters who bear the emotional scars of loveless marriages, corrosive anger and misogyny.
Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-1966 is a posthumous compilation of author Jean Rhys's letters, first published in 1984 by André Deutsch and from 1985 by Penguin Books.
The Betrayal is a 2010 historical novel by English writer Helen Dunmore. It is set in Leningrad in 1952, ten years after the Siege of Leningrad, and takes place during political repression in the Soviet Union and the plot against doctors in the Stalin era. The book was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the Orwell Prize.