Monday, September 11, 2006
My Sister’s Keeper
By Jodi Picoult
Rev. by L. Kapture
My Sister’s Keeper is about Anna and Kate’s relationship. Kate was born with a vicious form of leukemia. Anna was conceived with this in mind: her parents planned on using her umbilical cord for transplant material. Which works well, and adds to their family.
But over the years, Anna’s status as a perfect donor for Kate means that every time Kate relapses, Anna is volunteered: white blood cells, bone marrow. Now Kate is 16, and her kidneys are failing from sixteen years of treatment. Anna, of course, has a kidney to spare.
Now she has a lawyer, too. Because she is asking the court to be freed of her responsibility to donate that kidney.
I read My Sister’s Keeper for the book discussion group that we are having later this month. This isn’t my usual genre, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The characters are very engaging. Picoult tells the story from all of their perspectives, in alternating chapters. Picoult makes strong statements about grief, and family, and love, and how these three elemental substances interact. Jesse, Kate’s older brother, is a charming hooligan, and the method behind his hooliganism is tied strongly into his family’s (and his own) response to Kate’s illness.
Picoult never passes up a chance to add more tension to an already tense situation, possibly unnecessarily: who needs romantic lawyer tension when Anna is making a decision that could possibly kill her sister, who she loves, who is her only friend. At times, the plot begins to feel a little soapy. But then, it does keep you turning pages.
My Sister’s Keeper is not a feel good book, but it is a good book, and a feeling read. If you like legal thrillers, romance, or medical thrillers, this book will probably appeal to you.
Rev. by L. Kapture
My Sister’s Keeper is about Anna and Kate’s relationship. Kate was born with a vicious form of leukemia. Anna was conceived with this in mind: her parents planned on using her umbilical cord for transplant material. Which works well, and adds to their family.
But over the years, Anna’s status as a perfect donor for Kate means that every time Kate relapses, Anna is volunteered: white blood cells, bone marrow. Now Kate is 16, and her kidneys are failing from sixteen years of treatment. Anna, of course, has a kidney to spare.
Now she has a lawyer, too. Because she is asking the court to be freed of her responsibility to donate that kidney.
I read My Sister’s Keeper for the book discussion group that we are having later this month. This isn’t my usual genre, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The characters are very engaging. Picoult tells the story from all of their perspectives, in alternating chapters. Picoult makes strong statements about grief, and family, and love, and how these three elemental substances interact. Jesse, Kate’s older brother, is a charming hooligan, and the method behind his hooliganism is tied strongly into his family’s (and his own) response to Kate’s illness.
Picoult never passes up a chance to add more tension to an already tense situation, possibly unnecessarily: who needs romantic lawyer tension when Anna is making a decision that could possibly kill her sister, who she loves, who is her only friend. At times, the plot begins to feel a little soapy. But then, it does keep you turning pages.
My Sister’s Keeper is not a feel good book, but it is a good book, and a feeling read. If you like legal thrillers, romance, or medical thrillers, this book will probably appeal to you.
