Lucky (memoir)

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Lucky
2002 paperback cover of Lucky
Author	Alice Sebold
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Memoir
Publisher	Scribner
Publication date	August 4, 1999
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	272 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0684857820

Lucky is a 1999 memoir by Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones. The memoir describes her experiences of being raped and how the experience changed her view of the world around her.

[edit] Summary

Sebold was finishing her freshman year at Syracuse University when she was raped while walking home through an underground tunnel on campus. She reported her crime to the police, who remarked that a young woman had once been murdered in the same location. Thus, he told her, she was "lucky."

Sebold returned home to Pennsylvania to live with her family for the summer before beginning her sophomore year at Syracuse. After months of no leads by police, Sebold spotted her rapist while walking down the sidewalk. He smirked at her and remarked that he knew her "from somewhere" before continuing on. She immediately called the police, who apprehended him.

Among her professors at the time was Tess Gallagher, who became one of Sebold's confidantes. [1] Tess accompanied Sebold to several legal proceedings. Also among her professers were Ray Carver, Tobias Wolff and Hayden Carruth.

During a lineup, Sebold failed to correctly identify her assailant due to the fact that he brought a friend with him who looked exactly like him in order to confuse her. Finally, he is arrested again and tried for her rape. After he is convicted, Sebold's off-campus apartment is broken into and her roommate is raped. Though no connection to Sebold's rape case was ever proven, she felt that it was retaliation for her rapist being locked up. Her roommate looked at a photo lineup but ultimately decided not to pursue any further legal action.

[edit] Commentary

Sebold has stated that her reason for writing the book was to bring more awareness to rape. "One of the reasons why I wrote it is because tons of people have had similar stories, not exactly the same but similar, and I want the word "rape" to be used easily in conversation. My desire would be that somehow my writing would take a little bit of the taboo or the weirdness of using that word away. No one work is going to accomplish the years of work that need to be done, but it can help." [2]

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