BOOK REVIEW OF JODI PICOULT

Jodi Picoult was born and raised in Long Island, New York. She actually began writing at the tender age of 5 and by the time she was in college, her short stories were already being published in the magazine Seventeen. She studied writing at Princeton University and soon after graduation, found herself working as a writer at a brokerage firm on Wall Street, an editor of text books, a copywriter for an advertising agency and a teacher who taught English to 8th graders.

My Sisters Keeper, is a moving story of love; the love of a parent for their child, a love between sisters and a love of having the freedom to live and die the way you want to. This is a story of Kate who is diagnosed with Leukemia at a young age and her sister Anna, who was conceived with the intention of using her blood and marrow to keep her sister alive. Anna is a perfect donor match for Kate in all respects and spends much of her life in and out of hospitals giving parts of herself to Kate. After having undergone numerous medical procedures to benefit her older sister, Anna is eventually asked to donate a kidney to Kate. Anna becomes resentful of being a donor child and decides she has had enough. However, without this kidney transplant, Kate will quickly die, yet, Anna refuses. She retains an attorney to sue her family for medical emancipation so she is allowed to make her own choices about her medical care. While some may think this is the most selfish thing they have ever heard, try not to judge Anna until

Once she became a teacher she was inspired and entered Harvard University to earn her Master’s in Education. She is married with three children. Picoult says her biggest love in life is her children who have been her muses for many stories. Most of her stories tend to center on human emotion and her storylines often incorporate a criminal or civil case. The stories usually end in a twist. Picoult has many best sellers and is the winner of the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction. you read this fascinating story. One thing that makes this story so impressively deep is that each chapter tells the family’s story from a different perspective. One chapter is told by Anna, another by Kate, another by each of her parents, and another by Anna and Kate’s brother Jesse. This multiple story telling goes on throughout the entire story and allows the reader to really understand how Kate’s illness and her parent’s choices have affected each member of the family. While at the beginning you may think the decisions made were selfish and morally wrong, as you hear things from all perspectives you will begin to see how lives and situations are quite complex. It teaches us that there are no clear cut answers to anything and that while sometimes hard choices have to be made, people do the best they can with what they have been given. This story also raises some important questions about medical ethics and its boundaries. Is it morally acceptable to risk the life of one child to save another? Is it right to conceive a child with the sole purpose of using it to cater to another child’s medical needs? By the end of the book you will find yourself wondering what you would do if Kate and Anna were your daughters. And just so you know, this story is a real tear jerker. There are not many instances where you will not find yourself fighting back tears and actually feeling the pain and suffering that is happening within this family. My Sisters Keeper is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good story that makes you think about the things in life that are really important. Just be sure to keep that box of tissues handy.

Keeping Faith, is an amazing tale with the psychology of the human mind and the spirituality of the human soul melding together to tell a story of a little girl named Faith who is seemingly befriended by God. There have been many stories written about people actually seeing or talking to God but this one has an interesting twist that could only come from the talented mind of Jodi Picoult; the God that little Faith is conversing with is a female. Many people are having a hard time believing that Faith is talking to God. In the beginning, her mother believes that it must be a psychological defense against the problems her family has recently faced. Maybe the fact that Faith was present when her father was caught having an affair has led her to become so depressed and withdrawn that she has made up this person she is talking to in an attempt to find comfort. Or maybe, she is really talking to God. For a child who was not brought up knowing about God, it becomes astoundingly clear that something beyond reality has taken hold of young Faith. She begins quoting from the Bible, a book she has never even picked up and appears to have some sort of supernatural healing abilities. Once these abilities become public, Faith and her family find themselves being dragged into a media circus full of believers who want her to help heal them to nonbelievers who are trying to debunk her claims. Throughout the story, even Faith’s mother is not sure what to believe, but when Faith develops the signs of Stigmata, it becomes harder and harder to deny that God is actually communicating directly with her little girl. This story is one of hope and love. It is also one of controversy and skepticism. The point of this story is not to say that religion is the right path or that God is or is not real, but that no one really knows the truth and that by the time we do find out it is too late to share it with others. It is about opening yourself up to the unknown and taking a leap of faith in believing something that you cannot even begin to truly imagine. Picoult once again tells a masterful and compelling story in Keeping Faith. This book is filled with all the big questions in life and while it does not give you all the answers, it does compel you to consider the evidence and draw your own personal conclusions. It explores the relationships between a mother and daughter and between God and humanity. It is a perfect story for anyone who loves a tale about the unknown and the human condition. Be prepared to find yourself so absorbed in this book that putting it down will be nearly impossible, and if you are a true book lover, highly improbable. Cynics should be prepared to find themselves having a change of heart.