Book Review: The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily." And so begins the latest book from Alice Sebold. Sebold's fictional story of matricide is powerful and taboo, something Sebold is growing a reputation for. She starts the book with that sentence, and the reader immediately is simultaneously shocked, disgusted, yet intrigued. From there we meet the daughter/killer: Helen.

The story follows Helen in the twenty four hours after her deed, and into her memory of her childhood. As we learn about Helen's upbringing, and her mother's history as a lingerie model and descent into mental illness, we come to find sympathy and humanity for our protagonist. Helen is human, and much like her mother and like many of us, the readers of this book, she is deeply flawed. Struggling against her flaws becomes too much one day and a line is crossed. Helen ends her mother's misery and her own, and opens the door to an examination of her past.

Helen's role as her mother's caretaker didn't begin in her mother's final years. She was always there for her mother, protecting her while enduring her psychological abuse. The conflict within Helen's role as daughter, then as the roles of parent-child reverse has a slow, building momentum. Her father shoulders a good deal of the burden for as long as he lives, but soon the reader's discover Helen's father had his own difficulties to deal with.

What isn't immediately apparent is the equally destructive role Helen's father played in her path in life. She loved him more, it seemed, but by book's end that is in dispute. She may have liked him more than her mother, but she loved her mother more deeply.

This novel is skillfully crafted and powerfully written. It's as good as contemporary literature gets-a powerful subject, thoughtful and contemplative, with just enough attention to nuance to sketch a portrait of time, place, and character. It examines the fine line of love and hate, and how the two can merge into an indistinguishable cluster of feeling.

The book also touches on the effects of body image and perfection and the value of appearances and exposing oneself. Sebold uses several subtle body image metaphors through Helen's work as a model for figure drawing at the local college art program. The book deals with the interior of a family and the inevitability of exposure to their inner workings, their limitations and madness.

The Almost Moon will undoubtedly rocket to the top of the bestseller list this fall. It is scheduled to be released October 16, 2007. This is Alice Sebold's third book. She lives in California with her husband, novelist Glen David Gold.