I have read the novel My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I found this book extremely moving, as it covers a sensitive topic, and i throughly enjoyed it.
My Sisters Keeper is a book about a normal family, until their daughter Kate gets diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, when her mother notices shes developed something that looks like "a line of small blue jewels" down her spine, and her mother knows immediately that she is not seeing normal bruises. Their life is soon turned upside down. Neither parents are a right match to be a donor for their daughter they turned to their son Jesse. He wasnt a correct match either. To ensure that their daughter would have a higher chance of survival, they decided they would have another child that would be genetically designed to be a perfect match for Kate. At 13, when her sister now needs a kidney, Anna has had enough. She hires an attorney and sues her parents for the rights to her own body.
There are a huge amount of themes throughout the novel, but the theme of love and friendship play a special role in the book.
The strongest themes in the novel are friendship and love. These two themes slightly overlap throughout the novel, but is definitely most visible and told through the characters, Anna and Kate. They share such a strong bond towards each other, as both sisters and as best friends. Because Kate has been hospitalized her whole life, she never really got the chance to make a long term friend, so Anna acts as both a sister and as the best friend that Kate never got to have. Anna has been the only person who could save Kate, and their friendship is told through flashbacks from Anna's memory.
We see the theme of love represented in the Fitzgerald family and this is recognizable but we also see a new love form in the novel. Taylor, is also a cancer patient at the hospital, and meets Kate when he's there for chemo. He stays by Kates side as she undergoes chemo herself, and other treatments. In their relationship, we see hope for them both, as cancer patients, and as a couple.
We see this theme, strongly represented by Sara Fitzgerald, as the mother of Kate and Anna. We see the love for her two daughters, but people may only see her focused love and attention on Kate, because of her medical situation. In parts of the novel we do see a certain amount of favoritism towards Kate. The love that Sara has for all her children is often overshadowed when Kate is falling very ill. The moment we see Sara's true love for Anna, is during the court case, when we see that she loves both her daughters equal amounts, but when one is on deaths door step, wouldnt you do anything to keep her alive?
The novel is set in the present time, so its very easy to relate to, as it is an issue alot of people have had to deal with. The novel is written from the point of view from six different characters, Anna, Sara, Brian, Campbell, Julia and Jesse. Each chapter is told by a different person, in the present day, bar Sara. Until the very end, Sara's chapters are told from memories in past, whether about Kate, Anna or Jesse. I liked the way each chapter was told from a different person's point of view, as it gives readers a deeper insight into each of the characters life, and it also gives readers the chance to developed their own opinions of each of the characters.
My favourite character throughout the novel was Jesse. I found him so interesting and quirky, and i always looked forward to reading his chapters. Jesse gives you the impression that hes this big macho teenager who sets buildings on fire and one who drinks and smokes, but as you read his point of view, you really see that hes so heartbroken over Kates cancer and we see that he actually feels very isolated from the rest of the family. He lives above the garage in the Fitzgerald house hold, alone.
There were a number of subplots in the novel, but my favourite was between the attorney Anna hired, Alexander Campbell, and Anna's Guardian Ad Litem, Julia Romano. We learn that they once went to school together, and fell very much in love, but Campbell left Julia heart broken. As we read on, we find that each of them still have feelings towards each other. It was really interesting to read, and i liked Alexander Campbell as a character, i felt he brought some humor into the novel, where it was needed.
I throughly enjoyed reading this novel, and would definitely recommend it. I found it a very touching and powerful topic and Jodi Picoult's writing is very poignant. Im definitely going to read some of her other novels.
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