TME--Too Much Emotion

I just started THE LOVELY BONES, and while the writing is wonderful, I find the subject matter painful. It seems (and I'm only a few chapters in) that the whole book is focused on the pain resulting from a horrible crime. For me, it may be TME--too much emotion.

Laura Lippman has dealt with the effects of tragedy on a family, and I loved it. Other writers touch on it. Most recently I read William Kent Kruger's HEAVEN'S KEEP and loved how he handled Cork and his family's struggle with not knowing how great their tragedy would eventually be. So I'm not sure why THE LOVELY BONES started whispering to me last night as I read that I won't like where it's going, won't, as a friend of mine puts her philosophy of reading, be a better person for having read it.

Oh, I'll finish it. As I said, the writing is excellent. But it may be one of those books I wish I'd never picked up. The world is too much with us, and for me, these days, literature has to be an escape from TME. Exploring the raw holes tragedy pokes into a person or a family seems not only painful, but counterproductive. I'll let you know if I find that I am wrong.