Anyone read anything by Jodi Picoult? Did you find her books compelling yet completely depressing? It makes me wonder: should I keep reading her stuff because I enjoy her writing, or should I quit now and not look back because there are WAY too many good books out there which are NOT depressing?
I'm on my fourth Picoult novel. I read Nineteen Minutes first, which left me disturbed. And yet, I couldn't put it down. So I went to the library and checked out Keeping Faith and The Tenth Circle.
Keeping Faith was awesome. Actually, it was considerably less depressing than I thought it would be. It had it's darker elements, but the overall theme wasn't as sad Nineteen Minutes. I don't know if I find the story completely plausible, but it was interesting nonetheless (I'm trying not to give anything away here, thus the vagueness).
Then I tried to read The Tenth Circle. I made it about 2/3 of the way through and decided it wasn't worth continuing. I stopped reading it for the same reason I stopped watch "ER" years ago: too many bad things happening to the same people. TV and fiction both require a willing suspension of disbelief, obviously, but if it's not fantasy, then it shouldn't make you want to throw the remote/book across the room because it was just too unbelievable.
*Side note: Doesn't it seem that characters in books, on TV, and movies often get off too easily when they do bad things, like have affairs? Where are the consequences, people!
Now I am reading My Sister's Keeper, which is turning out to be quite good, though still "heavy". I did a dumb thing and read the end of this book before I'd quite gotten into it. Don't do that! So I know how it ends, but I'm still totally engrossed. It's about a family with a daughter who has leukemia. They then have another child who is sort of "engineered" in a laboratory to be born with the right genes to be able to be a cord blood/bone marrow/stem cell donor to her sick sister. It's very sad to read about all the trauma the family endures because of how sick their daughter is, but it's a totally compelling read.
Anyway, there's nothing quite like a good book. I just wish so many of the really good books out there weren't so heavy on the heart. But maybe that's what makes them good, because you feel them on some emotional level....
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Jodi Picoult
Scribbled by Kelly at 4:48 PM
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3 Talk to me!:
I quit ER years and years ago, too. There was one seriously traumatizing scene for me and I was done. I sleep better because of it! Drama CAN be so compelling. You can do it - go cold turkey from Jodi Piccoult!
I have read a few of her books, and I feel the same way about it. I have the book "Plain Truth" (same author) and I loved that one! Let me know if you want to borrow it.
My problem with Jody Picoult is that she plays you. She WANTS you to be depressed. I read My Sister's Keeper and felt like I was constantly wearing a heavy coat of guilt and despair. All that foreshadowing. And everything anyone said was fraught with meaning. I finished it (wishing I had read the ending first) and haven't gone back to her. I'm of the "too many good books" school.
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