11/10/08Ugh!! I finished this last night because I couldn't bear to spend another day of my life with this in my purse. So why did I read it? For the same reason that many young women read books they might not be thrilled with... I had to read it for my book club (...which normally picks much more intelligent and interesting books). As I mentioned to the person selecting the book when she solicited comments about her short list of options, I've never been tempted to read a Picoult book. I doubt that I shall read another.The short summary is this: after her parents' separation and divorce, Faith White starts talking to God (who she sees as a woman and calls "her Guard"). Faith starts healing people and develops what appears to be Stigmata. Divorce, medical things, custody battle. In short, complications ensue for father, mother, daughter, and the hot Southern television guy that's supposed to be proving Faith to be a fraud if he wasn't falling for her mom.My irritation at this book exists on many levels. As far as being pertinent in a GoodReads review, here are a few. Oh, and I'm not too concerned about spoiling things for anyone reading this review, as I hope you don't pick up this waste of trees, so if you really don't want me to spoil the incredibly obvious and uninteresting ending... Don't read any further. 1. This was an incredibly formulaic book... It's as though Picoult had worked out a system for churning out books with interchangeable characters geared to a female marketplace (Working on her seventeenth book and she's only 42, is she? You don't say!). Names and details were changed, but otherwise it was like you might see: [Insert protective mother example here!] [Insert love scene here!] [Insert courtroom drama here!] I'm betting that if I picked up another Picoult book, I'd find myself in a book with the names and situations slightly changed, but ultimately, the exact same outline.2. For a book that is essentially beach reading, it took itself way too seriously. You realize mass markets are made for beach totes, right? Pure and simple. That's the level of the writing, the intricacy of the characters, etc. I have nothing against beach reading or silly books, believe me. I find them to be delightful when that's what you want. But this book wants to pretend that it's about religion and protecting children... and funnily enough, she gets way more preachy about what children need in the courtroom scenes rather than being preachy about the religion (where everyone seems to be rational and accepting, aside from one small spectacle on Larry King). Oh and speaking about the focus on children... 3. For a book where characters kept insisting that the main story here (be it in the media frenzy, hospital scenes, or custody case) was about Faith (the child), I actually didn't think Picoult paid much attention to Faith until the last page of the book. (And then it was to do something incredibly inconsistent with the story she was writing.) Instead, the real drama centered around Mariah, the mother. (Maybe because Picoult is aiming for a middle-aged female market of wives and mothers, who want to know that just because they're not a gold-star mom and life isn't going smoothly, they're still great and could have a happy ending?) Picoult put way more effort into the relationship between Mariah and the tele-atheist Ian (though certainly not enough to convince us that their coupling is anything but unbelievable). Faith just wanders in occasionally to talk about drowned kittens and spurt blood from her hands and side.4. I didn't find any of the characters to be deep or complicated... Or particularly likable. The mother is needy and spineless. The grandmother is a stereotype of a strong grandmother figure. The father is an adultering asshole that the writer wants to pretend like she's not depicting as an ass, so she throws in a moment or two where he sees other kids and misses Faith, or he worries a bit about diving right into a new family. The tele-atheist is way too simplified, would never actually be interested in Faith's mom, and his big secret was incredibly obvious. And for a story where "everything is uncovered" in these people's lives by detectives and media snoops, they conveniently miss a few things which, surprisingly enough, benefits the characters you're supposed to be rooting for.5. Picoult wants you to think she's giving you a book where things might not be what they seem, and issues are complicated... She just doesn't want to put the effort into writing that book. There came a point where I stopped and wondered if Picoult was ballsy enough to do something (aka make this not about a kid hearing God, but make this about whether or not Faith or Mariah was lying and was mentally unstable). But that was a fleeting moment. I then remembered what a predictable book this had been up to that point and sure enough, we had to endure a hundred pages or so of courtroom scenes where Picoult desperately wanted us to think that the happily ever after for mother/daughter was in jeopardy.Those are just a few things that bothered me. Thankfully, this book club meeting isn't for another month or so. I'll rant here and to my friends for a few more days, but perhaps by the time we meet, I'll have come up with something constructive to say or have thought of some interesting questions to pose for discussion. But right now, the only thing I'm left wondering is how many times Picoult watched Contact and how hard she thought about covering up the idea that Ian's character was really just Matthew McConaughey playing for the other side?11/06/08Sigh. Not what I would be choosing for a book club of intelligent young women.
She's done it again! Picoult is without a doubt one of my favourite authors. Her novels are just so brilliant that they present a story that is so real and so captivating. I am not kidding when I say that I could not put down this novel. I read it at home (still on strike so I have a lot of time at home), on the bus, in between my job, at dinner time, during every commercial of my TV shows, before going to bed when I'm exhausted. In fact, if you haven't read this novel of hers, or any, well stop wasting your time reading my review and just go pick up the book. haha. I am so serious though.I was raised by parents in the Catholic faith and through the years, my own faith has faltered. My mom is an atheist. My father hasn't been to church since my sister had her graduation ceremony in a church. So... I guess in a way, my parents raised me in a faith that they couldn't support. Despite acknowledging that my parents may or may not have something to do with my present-day lack of conviction in my faith... I think it has to do with the way religion is presented nowadays. I like to think of myself as someone who can make judgments of my own without being told what to do. And what I loved about this novel is that... you see those who are so stubborn and ignorant in their religion that they refuse to consider possibilities. And here's the thing... I believe that there is something... bigger and all-knowing. As for religion? I just don't believe in that institution anymore. So the novel... it shows that faith has little to do with what religion you believe in... it's what comes of the faith and what you believe in. If you believe in a God that is all-knowing and all-good.. what difference is that really to all the other religions out there? They all believe that God is all-knowing and all-good as well. Perhaps there should be less arguing who is right... because I don't think we'll ever really know. But focus on the act of faith, the act of goodness.So excuse my little religious-faith-blabbering there. I guess the topic is still a little sensitive with me. As for Picoult's novel, I wholeheartedly recommend it to all. Whether you're religious or not. Keeping Faith is hilarious. It's touching. It's full of miracles. It's about second chances. It's about identity. It's about love. And it's just a compelling read that makes you want more.
What do You think about Keeping Faith (2006)?
I have read a couple of books by Jodi Picoult before picking up this one. Although they were all incredibly well-written, none captured my interest the way this novel did. I found myself quite captivated from the first page. The author has a gift for portraying her characters in such detail that the reader either loves them, or loves to hate them. Each character's personality is almost tangible -- as a reader, one can see thru his/her eyes, feeling the emotions as the storyline develops. This is
—Dana (aNovelAllure)
"I figured that motherhood would be something that descended naturally, the same way my milk came in - a little painful, a little awe-inspiring, but part of me now for better or for worse. I waited patiently... any day now, I told myself, I am going to wake up and know what I am doing.""My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn't a social construct, but an instinct.""Being a father... is not AT&T commercial, no simple feat of tossing a ball across a green yard or braiding a length of hair. It is knowing all the words to 'Goodnight Moon'. It is waking a split second in the middle of the night before you hear her fall out of bed. It is watching her twirl in a tutu and having one's mind leap over the years to wonder how it will be to dance at her wedding.It is maintaining the illusion of having the upper hand, although you've been powerless since the first moment she smiled at you from the rook's nest of your cradled arm.""Uxorious: Excessively fond of one's wife.""This is the codicil of motherhood: like it or not, you acquire a sixth sense when it comes to your children - viscerally feeling their joy, their frustration, and the sharp blow to the heart when someone causes them pain.""My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.""How could she even be considered remotely qualified to be a mother, knowing that she was every bit as fallible as this baby was perfect? In the stitch of a moment, anything could go wrong... she would look into her daughter's face and see accidents waiting to happen. And then her vision would clear and she would see only love, a well so deep that you could try and try and never know its bottom, but only suck in your breath at its frightening depth.""Suddenly [she] wonders if moments like this are what qualify you as a good parent: realizing that no matter how you try, you will not be able to protect a child from the tragedies or the missteps or the nightmares. Maybe the job of a mother is not to shelter but to bear witness as a child hits full force... and then cushion the fall when it's over.""Children are the anchors that yhold a mother to life." ~Sophocles - Phaedra"And, like the Wizard of Oz, he's learned if you hide long enough behind a curtain of bluff and principle, people stop trying to find out who you are in the first place.""Maybe there is more to a person than a body and mind. Maybe something else figures intot he mix - not a soul, exactly, but a spirit that hints you might one day be greater, stronger than you are now. A promise; a potential.""I remember thinking of my heart, balanced just above the baby's feet, like the ball on a trained seal's nose. And then there was the remarkable drive that came when I realized the only way to stop the pain was to get it out of me, to push and push until I was certain I'd turn myself inside out, even as I felt her head widening and changing me and the small knob of her nose and chin and shoulders as they slipped in succession, streaming between my legs in a shuddering rush of breath and blood and beauty.""Motherhood isn't a test, but a religion: A covenant entered into, a promise to be kept. It comes one-size-fits-all, and it camouflages flaws like nothing else... [my child] is the one thing in my life I got right on the very first try.""I can feel my daughter's eyes on me, like the sun that touches the crown of your head when you step outside.""Sometimes there aren't words. The silence between us is flung wide as an ocean. But I manage to reach across it, to wrap my arms around him."
—Britta
Ay yi yi..ok, no more Jodi Picoult books..I always say that and then end up reading more...I WANT to like her books...and they always have sooo much potential...then, always...always always...they disappoint...I was especially excited about this one because of her latest interveiw she talked about this book and how it's her favorite and most challenging so far because of it's ground breaking subject matter...Stigmata? Are you serious Jodi? Ay yi yi. This book wasn't so much about having and excercising faith as it was embracing fantasy and calling anything and everything "religion" and a call to embrace all ideas about God as relevant and true...sigh. I DO like Jodi's characters though,the Ian Fletcher atheist characte was charming, but I was really hoping for some "come to Jesus" moment for him after his experience with his brother. HAHAHAAha Oh well...
—Melissa
