I take her with me, wherever I go.
Do you have a book you read again and again, even though you know it'll make you dissolve into a puddle of tears each time? Does it make you think and question your morals and surprise you, even though you already know how it ends?
Granted I haven't read this book a million times yet (only three, I think), but each time, it chips away at me.
The first time I read My Sister's Keeper, I literally finished it in about two hours. I'm a fast reader, but this is a 423 page book, and I got it on a Monday afternoon, when I had two essays to write and a ton of reading homework for English. I just remember picking it up and thinking, I have to read this now, so I did, and I literally cried my way through the book. I'm not sure there was a chapter where I didn' t at least tear up, if not start sobbing. I'll be the first to admit I'm an emotional person, but even for me that's a little much.
Imagine my surprise when the second time I read this book, I basically had the same reaction.
And just now, the third time, even though I knew that the end was near and that final crushing blow Picoult had waiting was going to slam me in the face, I kept going. I always do.
I just finished crying now, actually. I'm sitting under a tree, waiting for lunch, and you know, even though this book always makes my heart clench into a fist and leaves me an emotional, teary wreck each time, I'll probably read it again in five or six months.
I won't claim to love everything Jodi Picoult's every written. I even downright dislike some of her books--for example, The Tenth Circle, or Vanishing Act--but despite that, despite everything, I can at least respect this woman for the immense effort she puts into weaving a complicated story that always, if nothing else, makes the reader think. Nothing she writes is fluffy or one note. You never know what she's going to write, except that it'll probably involve a random plot twist, if not several.
My Sister's Keeper is no exception. If you haven't read it, you may want to skip the rest of this, because I want to talk about some major plot points, and just take my advice: read the damn book already. It is fantastic, and even if you don't love it the way I do, I honestly think you'll get something out of it.
Now, one of Picoult's many talents is showing all sides of the story. I especially love this technique in Sister's Keeper. Everyone gets their shot to speak up. Basically, you get to insert yourself into that courtroom at the end, and decide for yourself what's right.
There's this vividly real picture, one of a family that's nowhere near perfect, but who have done the absolute best they could. Was Jesse left out to dry? Yes. Was Anna's conception morally grey at best? Yes. Was Kate's health the center of the family? Yes.
But Sara and Brian did what they could, did everything they could, and I think that's what matters. How could they have been expected to be perfect parents, when their child was always a relapse away from death?
Every time I read this book, I find myself asking if Anna should donate her kidney. Even after we find out Kate asked her to stop being a donor, I find myself siding with Sara at least once and thinking, Just try to save her one more time.
Ironic, isn't it, that Anna does just that at the end?
God, I wish she didn't die. I wish she just voluntarily donates the kidney, and Kate gets better, and there's this universal happy ending--but then, I don't think the book would hit me this hard every time if that wasn't how it ended. It is heartbreaking and unfair and a million other things, but it is real. Though I'm a pretty empathetic person as it is, I think the fact that I have a little sister (who's just about to be 13) plays into how moving this is for me. Anna and Kate remind me a lot of my sister and me--granted, I don't have APL, and Christina is far from my genetic match, and my family has never been through anything like what the Fitzgeralds have, but it still strikes a chord for me. The biggest loss I can imagine is Tina dying, plain and simple. It's so easy to find myself in Anna's shoes for the story (what would I do if that was my sister?) and then Kate's, at the end, as she deals with Anna's death and her unexpected chance to live.
Phew. I've been meaning to talk about this book for ages, but I think I needed to read it one more time. It's so much clearer to me, so fresh in my mind, and it's one of those stories I'll take with me, cheesy as it is, wherever I go.
Granted I haven't read this book a million times yet (only three, I think), but each time, it chips away at me.
The first time I read My Sister's Keeper, I literally finished it in about two hours. I'm a fast reader, but this is a 423 page book, and I got it on a Monday afternoon, when I had two essays to write and a ton of reading homework for English. I just remember picking it up and thinking, I have to read this now, so I did, and I literally cried my way through the book. I'm not sure there was a chapter where I didn' t at least tear up, if not start sobbing. I'll be the first to admit I'm an emotional person, but even for me that's a little much.
Imagine my surprise when the second time I read this book, I basically had the same reaction.
And just now, the third time, even though I knew that the end was near and that final crushing blow Picoult had waiting was going to slam me in the face, I kept going. I always do.
I just finished crying now, actually. I'm sitting under a tree, waiting for lunch, and you know, even though this book always makes my heart clench into a fist and leaves me an emotional, teary wreck each time, I'll probably read it again in five or six months.
I won't claim to love everything Jodi Picoult's every written. I even downright dislike some of her books--for example, The Tenth Circle, or Vanishing Act--but despite that, despite everything, I can at least respect this woman for the immense effort she puts into weaving a complicated story that always, if nothing else, makes the reader think. Nothing she writes is fluffy or one note. You never know what she's going to write, except that it'll probably involve a random plot twist, if not several.
My Sister's Keeper is no exception. If you haven't read it, you may want to skip the rest of this, because I want to talk about some major plot points, and just take my advice: read the damn book already. It is fantastic, and even if you don't love it the way I do, I honestly think you'll get something out of it.
Now, one of Picoult's many talents is showing all sides of the story. I especially love this technique in Sister's Keeper. Everyone gets their shot to speak up. Basically, you get to insert yourself into that courtroom at the end, and decide for yourself what's right.
There's this vividly real picture, one of a family that's nowhere near perfect, but who have done the absolute best they could. Was Jesse left out to dry? Yes. Was Anna's conception morally grey at best? Yes. Was Kate's health the center of the family? Yes.
But Sara and Brian did what they could, did everything they could, and I think that's what matters. How could they have been expected to be perfect parents, when their child was always a relapse away from death?
Every time I read this book, I find myself asking if Anna should donate her kidney. Even after we find out Kate asked her to stop being a donor, I find myself siding with Sara at least once and thinking, Just try to save her one more time.
Ironic, isn't it, that Anna does just that at the end?
God, I wish she didn't die. I wish she just voluntarily donates the kidney, and Kate gets better, and there's this universal happy ending--but then, I don't think the book would hit me this hard every time if that wasn't how it ended. It is heartbreaking and unfair and a million other things, but it is real. Though I'm a pretty empathetic person as it is, I think the fact that I have a little sister (who's just about to be 13) plays into how moving this is for me. Anna and Kate remind me a lot of my sister and me--granted, I don't have APL, and Christina is far from my genetic match, and my family has never been through anything like what the Fitzgeralds have, but it still strikes a chord for me. The biggest loss I can imagine is Tina dying, plain and simple. It's so easy to find myself in Anna's shoes for the story (what would I do if that was my sister?) and then Kate's, at the end, as she deals with Anna's death and her unexpected chance to live.
Phew. I've been meaning to talk about this book for ages, but I think I needed to read it one more time. It's so much clearer to me, so fresh in my mind, and it's one of those stories I'll take with me, cheesy as it is, wherever I go.