~~My Tattered Pages~~

   This novel is an autobiographical account of Alice Sebold’s rape when she was a college freshman.  In this novel, Sebold shares with her reader intimate details about being raped and how her life changed afterward.  She describes the violence in such detail that you “see” it vividly occur as you read.   Alice’s life was tainted by this rape.  How could it not be?  She returns to school and eventually graduates but not before more trauma and tragedy occur.  She does win the case against her rapist which is extremely difficult to do, but this doesn’t really do anything for her emotionally.  In some ways, I think it may have hurt her because it seems that after winning the case, she became somewhat of a celebrity and this damaged many of her relationships with peers and may have caused other problems. 
However, she manages to finish her classes and obtain an education.  She eventually becomes a college professor.  She travels quite a bit.  She also ends up with a nasty little heroin habit.
All in all it was an interesting read, meaning that you as the reader do want to know more about her life, so Sebold does capture her reader’s attention.  However, I did feel a little bit cheated at the end because the last couple of chapters dealing with her drug habit and adult life, seem to have been written in a rush.  It was like she needed a few more pages or something.  There was not as much detail in these final chapters as there could have been.  Her soul was not written into those final pages. 
I am left wanting to know more about the man she was living with and how she happened to get involved with him.  I also wanted to know exactly how big a drug habit she got into–when and how did she take her first hit?  Did she like it?  How did she feel?  Why quit? 
I also know she managed to find a great man, who she is married to and I would have liked to know more about that.  I guess what I wanted was a happy ending but I could see why she would not put that part of her life in this book.  This was more her own personal journey into an abyss and her struggle out of it.  It was like a journal she decided to share with the world about a very bad part of her life.  
It’s really difficult to rate an autobiographical account of someone’s life especially when it’s infused with such trauma.  Please understand that this is my own personal opinion about the “story” not her life.
This book gets 4 tattered pages!