Back in 2000, Alice Sebold read her memoir “Lucky” to an audience of only 20 people at the then-fledgling UCLA Hammer Museum. Fast-forward to 2003, and Sebold was reading her best-selling novel “The Lovely Bones” to a sold-out theater at Royce Hall.
Today, however, Sebold is heading back to the intimate Hammer Museum for a free reading to promote her next novel, “The Almost Moon.” Despite the smaller venue, Hammer series curator Ben Weissman expects the event to contain a packed and diverse audience.
“She’s got fans that must have read her book eight times and would travel from Idaho to see her,” Weissman said. “This kind of level of devotion to see is just crazy.”
With both “Lucky” and “The Lovely Bones” topping the New York Times best-seller lists, Sebold’s L.A. book tour marks yet another leg in her writing journey.
“She’s just evolving as a writer, and I think this is a real part of what she’s like,” Weissman said.
“Lucky” and “The Lovely Bones” both depict rape and, in “The Lovely Bones,” the murder of a young woman gives readers a harrowing perspective into not only issues of women’s safety in America but also how family and friends deal with the tragedy and consequences of violence.
“I liked (“˜The Lovely Bones’) because it was different,” said Sonia Hingorany, a fourth-year electrical engineering and cognitive science student. “It wasn’t a typical book that I’d normally read because I don’t like sad stories, but it’s different from anything I’d ever read before.”
“The Almost Moon” deviates from this theme of sexual violence and explores a daughter’s motivation to murder her mother.
“She has a really dark comic sensibility, which I think is really apparent in the new book,” Weissman said.
The accessible way in which she writes about such serious topics as rape and murder has influenced readers.
“It’s up-front while still being poetic,” said Lauren Hurlbutt, a third-year English student. “It’s realistic and she doesn’t gloss over grotesque details, but at the same time it’s poetic and it’s a pleasure to read.”
With the reading at the Hammer Museum, Sebold’s writing will take on an even more accessible touch in the personal setting.
“The reading is kind of a delicacy by-product of what a writer does,” Weissman said. “It’s sort of brave and exciting and it’s just the human being and their mind and reading. … I love it because it’s very direct and simple.”
Weissman said that despite the heavy-handed subject matter, Sebold manages to keep things feeling light.
“She’s got sort of a deep voice and a real sardonic sense of humor,” Weissman said.
“She adds the right kind of dramatic tone or tension or puts the right kind of pressure on the sentence, on each word, so it’s not overdone, it’s not underplayed; it’s just done right.”
But despite the widespread fame of her novels, Weissman suggests that Sebold is not fazed.
“In the end, I think she just likes to talk about writing,” Weissman said.
With a question-and-answer session to follow the reading, attendees will have the opportunity to ask about Sebold’s life and her writing process along with her feelings about the Peter Jackson movie adaptation of “The Lovely Bones,” which is to be released at the end of this year.
Although Sebold’s writing is what shapes her life, Weissman encourages students to pose a question on the lighter side.
“The thing that she loves to talk about is her dog,” Weissman said. “Ask her about her dog. It’ll go straight to her heart.”