Straight From the Heart
NEIRAD enilno edition
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Jodi Picoult’s books are best known for the difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions the plots centers around: An abusive celebrity husband, a dying sister, and a suicidal man who chases ghosts. If you’ve read more than one of these moral thrillers, perhaps you’ve noticed the vague formula Picoult seems to use in her work: an ethical dilemma, the illegal solution, the court case where a big twist is revealed, and the perpetrator taking the stand against their lawyer’s advice. But if you’re anything like me, the recognition of the formula just sits quietly in the back of your mind, while the fluidity and grace of Picoult’s writing takes center stage.
The way she writes is so insightful and full of life it’s difficult to put down one of her books once you begin. The only way I can think to describe them is like Pringles. Before you open a can, you know exactly how they’ll taste, but they’re so good you eat one, and another, and another. They’re addictive. The chips and the books, that is.
Picoult’s newest book, A Change of Heart doesn’t seem to have the same appeal as the other 14 books she’s written. It’s a little predictable and dragged out. The characters are very well formed, but not very believable like they are in the other novels. The plot is interesting, but impractical. Let’s just say it was like the little, crumbly Pringle at the bottom of the can: delicious but broken.
First, the main character, June Nealon, has had such a difficult life that it seems a little far-fetched. Her first husband died in a car accident when June was pregnant with her first daughter Elizabeth. June then marries the cop that told her about her husband’s death. Unfortunately the cop and Elizabeth are shot; and then it turns out that June is pregnant again, but this time the daughter has a fatal heart disease. That’s a lot for one woman to handle, even a fictional one.
The first twist in the book comes when you find out that the man who killed June’s second husband and her daughter, Shay Bourne, was sexually abusing the girl before he killed her. He is sentenced to death row in New Hampshire, the first death sentence in 60 years.
Eleven years into his sentence, Shay comes out with a final request; to donate his heart to June’s daughter Claire who has the illness. Obviously, everyone is against this including the warden, the priest, and the daughter. How could June even look at her younger daughter when the heart of the man who killed her husband and child was beating within her? The other issue is the fact that once Shay was lethally injected, his heart would stop working and would be of no use.
Maggie Bloom, an ACLU lawyer who tries to convince the court to allow Bourne to die a different, less heart-threatening way, uses his religion to jump off the point. As she’s researching lethal injections and the gallows, an unusual string of events unfolds in the jail where Bourne is being held. Water from the sink turns to wine, an AIDS patient is cured, a bird is brought back to life. The inmates all relate these miracles back to Bourne, who repeatedly denies being responsible. Word gets out, and hundreds of people flock to the jail: mothers with disabled children, men with disfigurations, religious cults. All are expecting Bourne to be the next Savior.
The book delves into the religious part of the plot, when a priest, Bourne’s spiritual advisor, who served on his jury is criticized by the Church when he tells them that Bourne is the next Messiah. A religious “war” begins outside the jail with protesters chanting, “Jesus is not Bourne”.
The rest of the book’s twists and winds can be difficult to follow at times. The research Picoult puts into the book is so detailed and thorough that it feels like you’re sitting right in the middle of the courtroom listening to psychologists discussing bipolar and schizophrenic diseases. Although to some, that may sound boring, let me assure you the ending is worth the wait.
To her credit, Picoult yet again succeeded in creating a psychological thriller that the reader can’t put down. The twists in the plot are very clever and again the characters are well formed. However, after I finished reading A Change of Heart, I picked up one of Picoult’s old novels, called Keeping Faith. It was good, but the phrases and creative synonyms Picoult used in this previous book were identical to the ones she used in A Change of Heart. The thoughts and actions of both main characters have a sort of deja vu feeling. It seems like Picoult just recycled one of her old book’s creative writing and incorporated a new plot.
While that part of the book’s writing was a little disappointing, the work as a whole is terrifically woven and the elaborate story really makes you think about what you would do if put into this situation.
Picoult is an expert at keeping the reader guessing until the very last page and though this is not her finest piece of writing, I would highly recommend any of Jodi Picoult’s books to anyone looking for a quick read.