Keeping Faith ~ Jodi Piccoult

What if your child suddenly began hearing voices and developed unexplained wounds?  What would you think?  What would you do?  Jodi Piccoult explores these questions in Keeping Faith.  Following an unexpected divorce, Mariah seeks to succumb once again to depression.  Her daughter, Faith, seeks solace in her "Guard."  A gathering of true believers and skeptics gathers on the front lawn of the previously a-religious family and intense media scrutiny begins when Faith begins exhibiting healing powers and then suffers unexplainable wounds on her hands.

Ms. Piccoult tenderly examines the struggles which Mariah undergoes she attempts to keep her daughter sheltered while trying to determine the cause of Faith's symptoms.  Only when Marish appears at a breaking point does Faith's father enter the picture again, beginning a custody battle. 

I was most compelled by the way in which Ms. Piccoult examines the idea of "faith" without making a definitive statement on the subject.  As Ms. Piccoult has said, she "wanted to look not at religion...but at belief."   She leaves enough room for the reader to come to her own conclusions.  Is Faith a prophet or a troubled little girl? To me, the answer wasn't nearly as important as the journey to it.

The Pact ~ Jodi Piccoult

“Oscar Wilde said that the pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.  Truth, you see is in the eye of the beholder.”

I finished reading The Pact, by Jodi Piccoult, last night.  True to form, Ms. Piccoult left me with plenty of room for discussion.  The story begins with a jolt, the seeming suicide of a bright young woman.  But, was it suicide?  Her lifelong companion, and boyfriend, survives the suicide pact, leaving a detective to with too many questions.  With an attention to detail, Ms. Piccoult traces the emotional journey that both families take.  The Golds deal with the death of their daughter; allegedly at the hands of a boy they considered family.  The Hartes are left to deal with a son accused of murdering the only girl he’s ever loved. 

Throughout the story are woven the relationships among the parents, once deep friends but now torn apart by the tragedy; the relationship between Emily and Chris, soul mates since birth and dependent upon one another; the relationships between parents and children, leaving the reader to question how well you can truly know your children.  Ms. Piccoult tackles these relationships with her usual compassion and honesty. 

The narrative, which jumps from the present to the past and back, allows the reader to discover Emily’s thoughts and motivations in steps, rather than by revealing everything at once.  It creates suspense as the reader tries to figure out why she would want to cut her promising life short.  And Ms. Piccoult does not disappoint.  By the final courtroom showdown, we know.  And we are left with one question: How far would you go for the person you love?

Next, I am reading Anne Rice's Merrick.  It is a crossover novel that combines the world of her vampires with that of the Mayfair witches.  After beginning the novel, I wish that I had re-read, or at least read summaries of, the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair novels.  If you're interested, here's all of them in order.

50 books this year?

So, I am taking the Goodreads book challenge & attempting to read 50 books this year.  To make it interesting, that is 50 previously unread books.  I'll keep you posted.  If you're on Goodreads you can track my progress there!

My first is Jodi Piccoult's The Pact.  This is one of her early novels, published in 1998, and was a turning point in her writing career.  She discusses this in an interview on her website. I love hearing from an author about what inspired them or what their process is. I'm about halfway through & so far The Pact is just as compelling as her other books.  It deals with relationships between parents & children, relationships between childhood friends & soulmates, relationships between friends.  Questions I'm left contemplating right now are: how well do we really know our friends & family?  how far would you go for someone you love?