Review: Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

In Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult the subjects of death, organ donation, family strife, and unity are all addressed equally well.  Ms. Picoult is never shy about addressing difficult and sticky issues and she does not disappoint in Lone Wolf.  The reader begins with a family divided.  Mom and dad have split.  Dad is a conservationist and researches wolves.  He even goes so far as to infiltrate their packs and live with them.  His exploits go too far though when he goes away for a year to live with wolves in Canada, leaving his wife, son, and daughter to fend for themselves.  Eventually, the wife leaves her husband and divorces him.  Their shared son turns eighteen, has a confrontation with the father, and suddenly leaves and never returns for six years.  This leaves the youngest child living with her mom up until mom remarries and has newborn twins with her new husband.  The daughter feels like a third wheel in this new family her mom has so she goes to live with her conservationist dad.  Only problem is he operates a summer wildlife park where he keeps wolves.  A tragedy occurs and one of the family members winds up on a ventilator and in a vegetative state.  The son returns home for the first time in six years and three family members are faced with the prospect of making a decision for one of their own concerning whether to maintain or terminate life support.  Once again, the family is divided and it is only after a temporary guardian is appointed for the family member in the hospital and a judge's ruling of who to give decision making power to for one of their own that the family unifies enough to make a decision.

This was a difficult read for me.  If you have ever been in the position of having to make a decision regarding a loved one's life or death following a traumatic injury, you will more fully understand the struggle this family has.  You have to reconcile what you think the family member in the vegetative state would have wanted for him/herself in this position, particularly if there is no living will.  You also have to contend with your own feelings and convictions of what constitutes a meaningful life.  I did find it hard to believe that someone like the conservationist dad in this story could actually gain partial custody given some of his research endeavors.  It also made me wonder if someone from the community would not have called social services given the obsessive nature of this dad toward his research.  He is so focused on his wolves that I sometimes felt he had not the first clue as to the health and well-being of his daughter.  The other problem I had with this book is that the son, who is a straight A student and could have had his pick of colleges, just up and decides he is leaving the family and moving half way around the world.  I think, given my experience with students, that it is more likely a student of this caliber would have chosen a college clear across the country in order to not have to interact with dad or associate with his dad as opposed to moving to Thailand.  Why discard your potential career and happiness just because you can't stand your father and think he is a hypocrite? 

The one portion of this book that really made me examine my own life is the struggle the family has with organ donation.  In this book's case, just because a family member in a vegetative state has a driver's license indicating he/she is an organ donor, does not mean that organ donation can or necessarily will happen upon that person's death.  It depends on whether the individual was actually registered and if upon death, the organs can actually be sustained for harvesting.  Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned, and it is not possible for the organs to be utilized for donation.  There is definitely no lack of big issue, thought provoking detail in this book and I would expect no less from author Jodi Picoult.

BIG NEWS PEEPS!!!

Okay, I'm not sure anyone truly follows me, but because I can view the number of page views I have accumulated on this blog since I first established it, it is obvious that people are checking this site out and I can see that all those folks are in the United States!  No more page views from India; not that I'm complaining about any page viewers much less where they are located. Bring on Europe, South Africa, and the Caribbean.

Back to the point of this post.  On Tuesday of this week I had a publisher write and tell me that I was in the final stages of being reviewed by their editorial staff and could I please fill out an author questionnaire and a 
book brief for them so they could make a final decision on my book's potential publication.  I have to be  honest.  At first, I was like, could they be a vanity publisher because I truly want to be legitimately published.  I researched the publisher and checked with a few folks.  No definitive answer.  So I then emailed a literary agent who has a partial of my manuscript and asked her.  She says they are small, but legit.  And by the way, she requested a book proposal.  Hallelujah!  So I spent two days and sixteen hours drafting the answers to the author questionnaire and book brief.  My former English students are laughing hysterically at this point and thinking finally, someone dishes it out to Mrs. S!!!  Calm down kiddies, I finished the work and it is quality work because I have never accepted anything less of myself or my students.

Here's the interesting part people.  The publisher would like endorsement blurbs from established authors and I am thinking, well, I'm a debut author, who in the world do I know that is established??!  After taking half a valium and breathing deeply for two seconds I think, well, I will just email and make the request from some of my preferred authors.  What's the worst that could happen right?  Oh Lord Help Deliver Me.  My first author choice responded that she was busy and no she could not at this time read a sample copy of my book and make an endorsement.  Okay, she has a book tour coming up so that is entirely possible.  I get my nerve up and send an email request to my second choice for an author endorsement..  This author is so major that I figured she would not repond, an assistant would respond, or she would tell me she did not have time either.  Well, folks, her reponse was that she does not endorse anyone whose work is published by a self-publisher/vanity press and obviously, my memoir was fiction.  Say WHAT?!!  First, I never told her who the publisher is and second, she has NEVER seen my memoir manuscript.  I've got four immediate family members who will sign their names in blood that this manuscript is true from first word till THE END darlin'!!  AND HELLO?! WHAT THE HELL EVER HAPPENED TO SUPPORTING YOUR FELLOW LITERARY GIRLFRIEND WHO IS JUST STARTING OUT?!  Needless to say, I was shocked and saddened, but not for me, for her.  I did not send a response because I'm Grace Sutherlin and I would never knock someone like that no matter what fame or wealth I do or do not achieve.  I'M STAYIN' THE COURSE MATES AND WILL KEEP ON SAILIN'!!

Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

For the first half of May when I was not attempting to help my husband locate office space for his new business and buy office furniture, I decided to read Jodi Picoult's newest paperback entitled Sing You Home.  You can never go wrong with a Jodi Picoult book.  She likes to tackle issues that are relevant and in the headlines.  This book is no exception to that policy as it follows Zoe, a music therapist, who is attempting to conceive via IVF.  She has had four unsuccessful attempts with IVF and the last round left her with a baby that was born stillborn.  Coupled with the devastation of the stillborn, her husband Max decides to check out of the marriage because he does not want to have any more attempts at IVF.  Max goes to live with his evangelical, attorney older brother who is constantly bailing him out or assisting him.  Max has a whole lot of issues:  he likes too much alcohol, to go surfing when he is supposed to be picking up a minister from the airport, and even more deadly, he attempts to drive himself places after drinking.  He files for divorce from Zoe and they each represent themselves in court.  Both never once think about the fertilized eggs still frozen at the fertility clinic during the divorce.  Herein lies the debate of whether you think about frozen eggs as property or people.  In this particular instance, I think Max and Zoe were so devastated from the divorce they just did not think to mention the frozen eggs when the judge asked them about debts and property distribution.  A divorce is granted. And then Max has a horrifc accident whereby he winds up fighting for his life in a hospital and has a conversion to the evangelical religion his brother espouses. 

Meanwhile, Zoe meets a school counselor named Vanessa.  They develop a relationship and eventually get married.  Max is shell-shocked upon learning the news that his ex-wife is a lesbian after encountering her at a grocery store one Saturday whereby she hurriedly informs him of her new relationship status in the grocery store parking lot.  Max is torn about the whole concept of being gay because the evangelical church he now attends is so adamantly against it.  Zoe begins helping a suicidal student at Vanessa's school who refuses to engage with life or anyone in it.  Zoe helps the student find a new reason for living via music therapy and the student's interest in the guitar.  Zoe and Vanessa decide to take a chance on utilizing the frozen eggs at the fertility clinic so Vanessa can have a child due to Zoe's life being at risk should she attempt anymore rounds of IVF.  They get to the fertility clinic only to discover that nothing can happen with the frozen fertilized eggs until Max gives his consent.  This leads to a nasty court battle whereby Max's evangelical church provides him with a top lawyer who argues that Max wishes for the frozen, fertilized eggs to be given to his brother and his wife who have been unable to have children and who are God-fearing, able citizens.  Naturally, this puts Zoe and Vanessa arguing that they can provide an equally loving and good household for any child that arises from the frozen, fertilized eggs being given to them.  Shockingly, Max and his brother's wife fall for each other while he's staying with his brother.  In the end, the judge awards the fertilized eggs to Max; however, he gives them to Zoe.  The child is then raised by Zoe and Vanessa, but also Max who eventually marries his brother's wife.    It is a riveting read, but all Picoult books are so this one will definitely not disappoint.