The Lovely Bones 2 *contains spoilers

            I have continued to read the book “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold. As I said in my last entry it’s told by a dead girl named Susie who was raped and killed by her neighbor Mr. Harvey. As I continued to read the book I noticed more and more things about Susie’s mother Abigail. She’s more distant after Susie’s death, and I think she handled her grief worse than anyone else.

            Abigail and her husband Jack were always close. Susie tells us how he used to call Abigail Ocean eyes, and she recounts all the times that they seemed so in love. But Susie also describes her mother’s “mask” before and after Susie’s murder. In the text it says when Susie is describing pictures she took of her mother, “already her eyes had begun to seem distracted and anxious, diving under and up into a mask somehow.” I think that really Abigail and Jack weren’t as close as it seemed. I don’t think Abigail really loved her husband. There was love at some point and that’s maybe what she wanted to hold onto. Or maybe she stayed for her kids, for Susie. After Susie’s death she still had Buckley and Lindsey, but Abigail had an affair with the officer on Susie’s case Len Fenerman, and then left her family to drive to California. Susie was the link in their family in her and her husband’s marriage, without Susie Abigail didn’t belong with her family. Why else would she leave? She had 2 kids, but I think she thought of them as her 2 remaining kids. There’s a difference in thinking of some as, the only one, or the only one left.

            She is still a mother. The pain could’ve taken a toll; it did take a toll on her. Maybe she did love her husband, and I know she loved her kids. Maybe she couldn’t stand to let her self go crazy with grief, to watch her husband and her daughter trying but failing to catch Susie’s murderer. Maybe that’s why she left them. But why did she have an affair with Len Fenerman? Why would she cause her family more pain?  Lindsey found out and Jack must have had a suspicion. That’s I think she stopped loving her husband before Susie’s death, that’s why I still think that Susie was the main link in the family and without her the family would disintegrate. I know Abigail was hurt, she was broken after Susie’s death, but I don’t know why she would cheat on her husband. Maybe she is in love with Len but I doubt it. He’s the closest thing to Susie’s murder; maybe she was trying to face her pain. I just don’t understand her reasoning. Was there any reasoning when she first kissed Len? People aren’t themselves when they’re in pain.