Dying for Someone You Love

My Sister’s Keeper By: Jodi Picoult

Did you know that I have rheumatoid arthritis? It’s really not that big of a deal. Luckily, I’m not going to die from it, it’s just a “debilitating disease,” as my specialist doctor said about 50 times on my first visit. Pretty much, I have quite a bit of pain in most of my joints (from my fingers to my toes and almost all the joints in between including my jaw-who knew eating would be painful for me…). Anyway, this is not a pity party, and if it was I wouldn’t invite any of you. I’m more of the “suffer alone” kind (unless you’re my friend Andi-then I tell her EVERYTHING about how I’m feeling- thanks for listening Andi!) Ok, back on track, the reason I mention this, is because if I’m going to be handed a bad card in my life, this one isn’t so awful. There are so many other things out there that are so much worse than RA! Like, oh, I don’t know… Leukemia! There are deathly diseases out there that like RA there is no cure for, but the worse that’s going to happen to me is that I’m going to have some JACKED up hands and feet when I’m older and pain, but I’ll still be around.

My Sister’s Keeper, is about a family that the middle child has Promyelocytic leukemia. She is diagnosed at age two. Her older brother is not a match to her genetic make up so the family designs a baby to be her sister’s exact genetic match. The story starts when Anna, the designer baby is 13, she is suing her parents for medical emancipation. She no longer wants to be prodded and poked and donate every cell of her body to keep her sister from dying. Kate the middle child was only supposed to live to be 5 and here she is 16 and it isn’t the cancer that’s killing her now, she has kidney failure. The story takes place over 2 weeks during the trial.

I don’t have just a whole lot to say about this book, so I’ll just tell you what I liked and what I didn’t like. First, I like how the book is written. Each chapter is from a different person’s perspective. Picoult even changed the fonts for each character. The audience sees the perspective from inside and outside the family. My favorite character in the book was Anna’s lawyer, Campbell. He to me was the most real and complex character in the book. All of that to say, one thing I didn’t like about the book was it didn’t seem like she changed very much between the characters. There was a difference in how each character thought, but in my opinion it could have been stronger. If she wouldn’t have put the narrators’ name on the beginning of each chapter, I don’t know that a paragraph in, I could tell who was talking.

The next concept I enjoyed is that you didn’t know exactly what was going on during the book. You think you do, but everyone is keeping a secret. Some character’s secrets are big and some are small, therefore I was guessing throughout the entire book. What’s going on? I was looking for the answers. When I was about half way finished I figured most of them out, and I was right. There were some things at the end that took me by surprise, but you’ll have to read the book to know what they are.

All of that to say, this book was enjoyable. I liked it. You should pick it up sometime, read it, then tell me what you think about it! Don’t forget your Kleenex (BYOK!).