I certainly took my time reading this one. I don’t mean the actual reading process; I started the thing the day before yesterday and finished it this morning. I mean it was first recommended to me almost four years ago but due to the fact that I didn’t entirely trust the book taste of the person doing the recommending, I never made any effort to get a copy. More recently, a different friend recommended My Sister’s Keeper, I read it, and I loved it.
It’s topic is a lot deeper than that of most books I read. The story is that of Anna, younger sister to long-term leukemia patient Kate, who has spent her life in and out of the hospital because she is a perfect genetic match to her sister. She ought to be, since she was specifically chosen from other possible embryos for that reason. As a result, she’s made multiple blood and marrow donations to her sister…and now her mother wants her to give Kate a kidney. Anna, in turn, hires a lawyer and petitions to be medically emancipated from her parents in order to have final say over any medical procedures she undergoes.
Sounds fairly straightforward, but it’s not. The legal plot is actually more of a subplot…what the book is really about is the family dynamic of the Fitzgerald household. Sometimes complicated, sometimes simple, and sometimes mind-boggling, the psychological and emotional undercurrents of this family weave through each and every chapter. Picoult writes from many different points of view, capturing the anger of older-son Jesse, the resignation of father Brian, the confusion of Anna, the desperation of mother Sara, and the hopelessness of the hub around which they all revolve: Kate.
I don’t usually like this kind of stuff. I have found that “family dynamic” books tend to be some combination of kitschy, sugary, angsty, and overly dramatic. My Sister’s Keeper is free of all these qualities, thank goodness. It’s engrossing and thought-provoking instead.
That being said, I’m not without criticism (am I ever?). The family members are just a little too perfect sometimes. No one ever really breaks down, and I think they would. The subplot of Campbell (Anna’s lawyer) and Julia’s (Anna’s guardian ad litem) history as a couple seems gratuitous at times, as does Campbell’s illness. But then, I’ve already admitted that I’m biased against “heart-warmers,” so maybe I’m being too picky.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Plot: *****
Characters: ***
Vividness: ***
Readability: ****
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