Lucky

Set in 1981 at Syracuse University, American author Alice Sebold’s memoir, Lucky (1999), focuses on a brutal sexual assault perpetrated against Sebold, and the fallout from this attack. In explaining her reasons for writing the book, Sebold said, "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."

In the early morning hours of May 8, 1981, Syracuse University freshman Alice Sebold is brutally beaten and raped while walking through a park just off-campus. Her assailant warns her that he will kill her if she screams. Alice screams anyway. The attacker threatens her with a knife, then grabs her by the hair, throwing her to the ground. When Alice's head hits the ground, she loses consciousness but only for a few moments. She wakes up while the rape is still in progress feeling terrified, helpless, and resigned to her fate, certain that this man will kill her. While complying with his commands, Alice continually reasserts the fact that she is a virgin.

Very shortly after surviving the attack, Alice reports the crime to the police, who tell her she is "lucky" because another young woman Alice's age was recently murdered in the same park. Suffice to say, Alice does not feel "lucky" in any way, shape, or form, having just suffered a horribly painful and traumatic attack.



Between her freshman and sophomore years, Alice returns to Pennsylvania where she lives with her family. During this period, she endures some incredibly judgmental and victim-blaming behavior from her father, who believes that Alice should never have been in a park by herself late at night, and thus deserves the blame for the attack. Upon returning to Syracuse in the fall, Alice studies creative writing under a number of prominent fiction writers, including Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, and Tess Gallagher. Gallagher is an especially important influence on Alice's life and writing, serving as both a mentor and a confidante through this difficult time.

Meanwhile, months pass and the police still have no leads on Alice's assailant. Then one day while walking down the sidewalk, Alice sees her attacker. The attacker, whose name we later learn is Gregory Madison, seems to take great pleasure in seeing his victim on the street. Madison smirks at Alice and says, knowingly, that he recognizes her "from somewhere," clearly attempting to scare and intimidate her. While the experience is undoubtedly upsetting for Alice, she refuses to be frightened into submission. She calls over a nearby police officer who apprehends Madison.

In order to confuse Alice, Madison invites a friend who looks strikingly similar to him to join him in the police lineup. This causes Alice to mistakenly identify the wrong man, leading to Madison's release. Later, however, he is arrested again after the police determine that Madison's DNA matches that of a hair found on Alice after the attack. Madison is convicted and sentenced to prison.



The following summer, Alice decides to stay in Syracuse instead of going home to Pennsylvania. Her roommate is a young woman named Lila. One night, Alice comes home to find Lila beaten and raped on Alice's bed. Lila says the assailant mentioned Alice by name, leading the police to believe that Madison orchestrated the attack from his prison cell, using one of his friends to commit the assault as revenge. Despite the fact that she knows it isn't Alice's fault, Lila cannot forgive her roommate.

Alice still manages to graduate from Syracuse, but her life enters a freefall after that. She briefly attends graduate school at the University of Houston but then moves to Manhattan where she struggles to make a living as a writer. Throughout much of the next decade, Alice is a heavy drinker and user of drugs, including heroin. Eventually, however, she tries to face the fact that her identity cannot be separated from her status as a victim, and that she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from some time. Finally, Alice leaves Manhattan, which she believes has been an unhealthy environment for her, and settles in California where, she writes, "both hell and hope lie in the palm of my hand."

Lucky is an unsparingly grim look at sexual assault and post-traumatic stress disorder.