My Sister's Keeper: A Novel (Wsp Readers Club)
New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells the story of a girl who decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body in this riveting story that tackles a controversial subject with grace and explores what it means to be a good person.
Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally powerful story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.
Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally powerful story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.
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Community Reviews
Recently, I started volunteering for the National Writers Series here in Traverse City, Michigan where I currently reside. The prerogative of this year-round series, co-founded by New York times best-selling author Doug Stanton (writer of Horse Soldiers), is to instigate âgreat conversations with todayâs great writers.â And they arenât kidding about the âbest writersâ part either. Headliners in the past, just to name-drop a few, include Tom Brokaw, Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie), David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day), the writers of the hit TV show Mad Men, and poet Thomas Lynch. Like I said, this little Northern Michigan gem town is a literary force to be reckoned with, ranking as #6 in Liveability.comâs Top 10 Cities for Book Lovers. One of 2012âs invitees, as you might have guessed and which I just learned a couple of days ago, is Jodi Picoult!
In a weird twist of fate, My Sisterâs Keeper had been sitting in the back seat of my car for about 4 and a half months (left there by my own sisterâs neglect) before I finally had a good reason to pick it up. After finishing it, I wish I had done it sooner. Picoult portrays the finesse of a tight-rope walker as she balances the role of a writer, doctor, and lawyer, approaching an ethical quagmire, dissecting it, surveying it from every possible vantage point, re-assembling it, and telescoping the quandary for her readers. The most rewarding partâand perhaps challenging for Picoultâ of this process is that Picoult never really asks you to choose which side youâre on but revels in the opportunity to turn the tables and make you re-evaluate which end of the spectrum you lie. There is no right or wrong, black or white, good or evil. Picoult is a cartographer for a land that has been unchartered, raising the social and moral implications of a biological breakthrough that may literally save the life of one daughter but inhibit the life of the other in so many other ways.
Obviously, a science geek with medical aspirations like me delved into this novel like a whale in an ocean, submerging myself for lengths at a time until my girlfriend yanked me up for air every now and then. However, what satiated the scientific portion of mind left my literary portion yearning for a little bit more. I could have used some more character development. Although I gladly enjoyed the changing of perspectives, Picoult, like a comedian who rushes through the beginning of the joke in anticipation of the punch line, was too focused in the movement of the plot rather than the growth of the persons involved which I felt took away a little bit from the story. Nevertheless, a great introduction for me into the talent of Picoult, and I look forward to seeing her speak in the near future. Iâll post pictures and a review later on!
In a weird twist of fate, My Sisterâs Keeper had been sitting in the back seat of my car for about 4 and a half months (left there by my own sisterâs neglect) before I finally had a good reason to pick it up. After finishing it, I wish I had done it sooner. Picoult portrays the finesse of a tight-rope walker as she balances the role of a writer, doctor, and lawyer, approaching an ethical quagmire, dissecting it, surveying it from every possible vantage point, re-assembling it, and telescoping the quandary for her readers. The most rewarding partâand perhaps challenging for Picoultâ of this process is that Picoult never really asks you to choose which side youâre on but revels in the opportunity to turn the tables and make you re-evaluate which end of the spectrum you lie. There is no right or wrong, black or white, good or evil. Picoult is a cartographer for a land that has been unchartered, raising the social and moral implications of a biological breakthrough that may literally save the life of one daughter but inhibit the life of the other in so many other ways.
Obviously, a science geek with medical aspirations like me delved into this novel like a whale in an ocean, submerging myself for lengths at a time until my girlfriend yanked me up for air every now and then. However, what satiated the scientific portion of mind left my literary portion yearning for a little bit more. I could have used some more character development. Although I gladly enjoyed the changing of perspectives, Picoult, like a comedian who rushes through the beginning of the joke in anticipation of the punch line, was too focused in the movement of the plot rather than the growth of the persons involved which I felt took away a little bit from the story. Nevertheless, a great introduction for me into the talent of Picoult, and I look forward to seeing her speak in the near future. Iâll post pictures and a review later on!
I'm usually not into books like these with so much emotion and sadness but Jodi really knows how to suck you in.
I loved, loved this book. I finished it in two days.
I really enjoyed how each chapter was told from the point of view of one of the characters.
In the copy I read each character had their own font - I did not like that.
I really enjoyed how each chapter was told from the point of view of one of the characters.
In the copy I read each character had their own font - I did not like that.
Family can do unthinkable things just so one can live. The idea of literally being made to be used is unsettling. Plot twist is different from the film but both were done nicely.
Anna Fitzgerald was a designer baby -- conceived for the purpose of being a blood cord donor to a two-year-old sibling with leukemia. When the cord blood isnât enough to keep her sister, Kate, in remission, Anna donates lymphocytes, stem cells, and bone marrow, all by the time she is thirteen. Her life is so wound up in her sisterâs survival that she no longer knows who she is, and wonders when she can begin life with only her own goals and interests in mind, without the burden of knowing she is her sisterâs lifeline.
This drama is at the center of Jodi Picoultâs riveting novel, My Sisterâs Keeper. The story is told from the perspective of the key players: Anna; her mother, Sara; father, Brian; brother, Jesse; and Campbell, the attorney Anna hires to sue her parents for medical emancipation when her kidney is the next target donation for Kate. The book is well researched and thoughtfully examines questions about bio ethics as well as what happens to a family when all attention turns toward efforts to keep a child alive, and at what costs to the rest of the family. It is an emotionally honest portrayal, and you canât help but feel for every character involved: Sara, who knows she is ignoring her troubled son Jesseâs needs and Annaâs desire to do things as simple as play hockey, which Sara forbids, because an injury could risk Annaâs ability to donate a kidney.
As the story unfolds, voice by voice, Picoult keeps the surprises coming, and even when you think you see whatâs ahead, you will be blindsided by the stunning denouement. Heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful, My Sisterâs Keeper is a three-hankie, page-turning read.
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