Harvesting the Heart – Jodi PicoultI do quite enjoy Jodi Picoult's books but have started to find them a bit formulaic. this one is a bit different. I thought when I read this that it must be a newer book but it is apparently one of her older works. I have to say I prefer this to others she wrote later then.She still takes a controversial subject and this time it is post natal depression/ struggling with motherhood. This is combined with attitudes of those who have been brought up to think they are superior and how they behave in a marriage.I did like the characters in that at times I could cheerfully have slapped them whereas at others I felt sympathetic so in that way they were quite real.I found it really hard to believe that a mother could walk out on her family and nEVER contact them again and yet profess to love them. I just didn't get that. Why not talk about feelings and not just disappear?I liked Nicholas's parents - they seemed normal in comparison to Paige's parents. Her mother I just didn't get while her father I felt was far too laid back for his own good.Paige was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father who was a not very good inventor and a mother who ran off when she was five and they never knew why. This haunts Paige throughout her life.She leaves Chicago and her father when she is about eighteen after having an abortion because she feels her father would be ashamed and the relationship with her boyfriend would be strained .She travels to Boston where she gets a job in a cafe. She starts to draw the customers and begins to have a bit of a cukt following for her work.She meets Nicholas as a customer in the cafe. He is a trainee doctor from a very privileged back ground and eventually marry. When their son is born Paige really struggles and has little support from Nicholas and things take a huge turn for the worst and the family undergoes a big upheaval.I won't say any more as it would spoil the story but it was quite a surprise the way thins went from there.Nicholas was cool and calm and quite self centred and determined and at times not very likeable. He was a brilliant heart surgeon, hence the title but the title has a double meaning re Paige's heart too.Paige was quite a sympathetic character , she was no push over, she had a great talent for drawing and had survived a lot of emotional trauma in her life. She seemed to be able to forgive very easily as many people had let her down in different ways and yet she never resented this. She was angry with her mother and that dominated her actions and emotions.The chapters alternate between Paige's and Nicholas' points of view with Paige's chapters written in the first person. I found it a bit annoying that Paige's were in the first person and Nicholas' in the third person . I wish she had stuck to one or the other. I did like the two different perspectives though.I think the part that really came home to me was the struggle Paige had when the baby is first born. She became a walking feeding machine and lost sight of who she was completely. This is a very hard tie for any new mother and especially hard if you have no support and a difficult baby too. I think many of us would be able to relate to how Paige felt.I found it interesting that Nicholas, despite being a doctor totally misses the signs of illness in two family members while Paige was far more perceptive about how other's were feeling despite no medical training. There is obviously a difference between surgical ability and emotional support and empathy.All in all I liked the story and found it much less like her other books in that it didn't follow the same formula and the central topic or subject of the story was much less easy to pin point.This has restored my interest in Picoult's books and I will be interested to see what she writes next.I would say that this is one of her better books and if, like me you found her stuff was getting a bit predictable then give this a try as it is a good story with characters you can believe are real people.
OK, I didn't totally hate this Jodi Picoult. I didn't, however, understand how she lost the plot so efficiently in the last quarter of the book. Nicholas and Paige have a contented marriage- until Paige finds out she's pregnant. She's filled with mixed emotions, feeling a need to flee, or miscarry the child. She ties this in with the fact that her mother abandoned her and her father when she was 18. This also ties back into an abortion Paige had when with her first ex. The conflicting feelings and repressed emotions build until Paige begins to distance herself from Nicholas, their unborn child, and their marriage. Paige soon gives birth to a healthy baby boy- Max- and her feelings explode into uncertainty, shame at her feelings about her abortion(which no one knows about beside her and her ex, the father), and her mother's abandonment. Paige suddenly begins to realize- when Nicholas, her husband, the cardiac care head, spends more and more time away while she struggles with the first "trappings" of new motherhood. They do address post-partum depression somewhat in this book, but it's glossed over with the mother abandonment issues, which seems to take precedence throughout the book. Paige tries to tell Nicholas, and reach out to get help, but he's obsessed with his career and doesn't think it's something that will continue onward(syndrome of many new fathers who don't realize the depth of their wives' postpartum woes)and it will just "go away". Finally, after three months, Paige finally snaps and tells Nicholas she's going away. She embarks upon a search for her mother- hiring a private detective and finding her living on a horse farm in the South. Paige spends several months with her mother, getting to know her, and finally confronting her about her betrayal. Upon doing this, Paige suddenly realizes how much she misses her son and her marriage. She heads home to an irate Nicholas, who threatens to not only take Max away, but to file for divorce. Paige doesn't go down without swinging. Nicholas' parents, who had shunned Paige from the time her and Nicholas got engaged and all through the marriage, have mellowed in their maturity and being new grandparents, take her in and attempt to help her. Basically, cut to the chase- after all of the soul searching, Max has a brush with death, and Nicholas and Paige reconnect- but only on a physical and psuedo-understanding level. The book ends with no apparent resolution to their marriage, to her mom's role in her life, to anything. You find out what happens to their child, there's an awkward conversation, and that's it. Very open-ended. That part of the book really sucked, no kidding. You give such a shit about these characters and their family unit, and then poof! Gone. Disappointing end.
What do You think about Harvesting The Heart (1995)?
This book irritated the heck out of me. A mother runs away from her child because she doesn't think she'll be a good mother. What the heck? Well, to start with don't run away from your kid. The main character annoyed me with how much she felt sorry for herself. Why would you miss your child's most important first year? She knew how it felt because her own mother did it to her, so she just does it to her own kid? Lame. And the husband was a self righteous prick too. Don't waste your time with this one.
—Heather Hocking
Overall this book was excellent. While I was reading it I did get bored at times and felt like some parts dragged on. But once I finished the book I was able to appreciate earlier sections of the book because everything made sense at the end why Jodi had to include so many details. I was able to relate to Paige's character because I recently had a child and also a newly wed. The ending of the book was so powerful. Since I am a parent I know the fears of having a sick child. I thought that the emotions of Paige and Nicolas were so real based on the way it was presented in the book. At times I felt bad for Paige and other times for Nicolas. I loved how everything came together at the end. I was happy that Nicolas was finally able to see Paige's true love for her child. After reading this book it makes me wasn't to hold my baby and husband a little bit tighter and be happy that I have both of them in my life!
—Julie
This is everyday life if you haven't realized. You obviously have had a very enclosed life style if you think that this couldn't happen. Tons of parents have left their children when they are young and yes, it is possible to not believe that you couldn't be a parent. You learn how to be a parent from your own experiences and if you haven't had them how do you expect to raise a child? They aren't like food, you can't make them from scratch. People are still in search of their parents while they are 30 or 40. And love will always find its way.
—Brittany
