The Cut - Don't Blame Alice Sebold

In May 1981, a young white woman in Syracuse, New York, is attacked by a man on the street and raped in the glass-littered tunnel near her campus. In 1992, the story of her assault and what follows becomes a best-selling memoir hailed for its bravery in resolution. Reading Alice Sebold’s Lucky for the first time yesterday, I found myself sick to my stomach with the images of her prose. She goes through the process: the medical examination, the trip to the police station where she first records her assault. Barely 18 years old and with no other option, she goes to the police with hopes they might help.

The state police, with little technology of scientific efficacy, have no recourse to offer her. After shoddily capturing her testimony, they send her home with instructions to come back if there’s anything new. She leaves campus and goes home to her mother, spending the summer working through this trauma, relatively alone, with a limited menu of healing available to her. Determined to continue her education, almost certainly still reeling from the sheer memory of the assault, Sebold returns to Syracuse in the fall. One day in October, on a walk through town, she thinks she sees her rapist. Going back to the same collection of useless law-enforcement officials, as instructed, she tells them she has seen her rapist.

We always suspected that being an Olympic gymnast couldn’t be as hard as they say it is, and now we’ve got confirmation. Schools are doing remote classrooms on Fridays, and parents are furious. But really what they should be furious about is that American teachers are so overworked and undervalued that closing became necessary in the first place. Sure, it’s cold out, but there’s beautiful December stargazing to be done! If you’re into book shelfies, check out the best-looking book covers of 2021. What Amy Coney Barrett doesn’t get about adoption — and abortion. And should you want to feel real sad today: Here’s Hillary Clinton crying while she reads what would (should) have been her 2016 acceptance speech.

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