My Sister's Keeper book review by Chelsea Smith

Chelsea Smith (3009109)

EDUC-2530-005

April 11, 2014

Mike Link

I chose the novel My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. In this novel, we meet the Fitzgeralds.  A family of five dealing with the misery of cancer.  Brian, a firefighter, and Sarah Fitzgerald, would have been lawyer, have 3 children.  Jesse, the eldest; Kate, the middle child who is the family member battling cancer; and Anna, the youngest who was born with the purpose of keeping Kate alive by being a perfect genetic match to her sister. The story is narrated by everyone in the family except for Kate who we only hear narrate during the prologue and epilogue.  We also hear narration from other characters including Campell, Anna's lawyer, who has a service dog but kept the reason for his service dog a secret for years; as well as Julia, Anna's ad litem as well as Campell's past love who struggles with the way Campell left her.

The book is told within eleven days.  The chapters are separated by the days within this time period.  It begins on a Monday with Anna in lawyers office explaining to him her life and what she has gone through to keep her sister alive, and how that is really the only reason Anna is in this world is to keep Kate alive.  Campell, decides to represent Anna.

After the case become real, the Fitzgerald's home life become rocky.  We see Jesse acting out and setting fire to different places as he watches his father put them out.  A obvious cry for attention as he has not received any from his family due to his sisters illness.  We also see tension between Sarah and Anna, which results in Julia becoming Anna's ad litem, as well as Brian taking Anna to his fire station for a better living arrangement.  During this time Brian talks to Anna and Campell and seems to side with them.

The rest of the novel continues in court.  Sarah represents herself and Brian, and when she asks Brian to take the stand, he shockingly agrees with Sarah.  Although readers were lead to believe that Brian agreed with Anna, when it came down to testifying in court he ultimately agreed with Sarah and states that he doesn't know what is right or wrong in this situation and ends up breaking down. After denying for a long time to take the stand Anna also breaks down and reveals that Kate was the one who wanted Anna to stop donating and that Kate didn't want to live the way she's been living.  At that same moment Campell's dog start behaving erratically but Campell ignores him due to the trial, and Campell ends up collapsing.  It is now revealed that Campell suffers from epilepsy and that his dog was there to warn him if he was about to have a seizure.  Campell finally tells Julia that he left her due to his seizures because he didn't want her to have to deal with that.

The case continues with the judge visiting Kate and after speaking with her and listening to Campell and Sarahs closing arguments, he decides to grant Anna medical emancipation and gives Campell medical power of attorney.

After the case closes Campell drives Anna to the hospital and we realize once Brian is called to a serious car crash, that Anna and Campell were victims on the way to the hospital.  Anna winds up brain dead and because Campell has medical power of attorney over Anna, he gives Anna's kidney to Kate.The novel ends with Kate living and describing how Anna is now always with her.

I chose this book as I had already seen the cinematic version, and was interested in reading the novel as I really enjoy being able to see the differences between the two. The novel is a very deep story for me.  Just this past year, I lost a friend to cancer.  I found that the author, Jodi Picoult did a great job at showing the reader how difficult it can be to face this kind of situation.  Although only one person is battling cancer and fighting for their life, it affects so many people around them.  Picoult is able to demonstrate this by the way she writes the story from different characters' points of view.  Most of the characters narration is in the present, other than Sarah's, who narrates in the past up until the final chapter. It allows readers to connect with each character.  I found that had Sarah's narration been told in the present, I would have found her character to be very selfish toward Anna and only care for her one daughter's well being.  However, because Sarah narrates in the past, we are able to see all the struggles that she has overcome trying to save Kate, and it just proves that although Anna may seem to be the only one to suffer to save Kate (as she physically is the only one who can save Kate), the entire family really suffers.  For example, Jesse suffers by not receiving the attention he deserved his entire life, Anna suffers physically, and Brian and Sarah's relationship suffers.  

I also enjoyed how Picoult always had a way of making the novel interesting.  Just as when the reader thinks we know what is going on she has a twist, or an interesting metaphor spark our attention.  The most obvious examples of this would be when Anna reveals that Kate was the one who asked Anna to file for medical emancipation, or at the end of the novel when Anna passes away in a car crash with Campbell.  The family and readers were always expecting a daughter to die, but with this twist it became the daughter everyone thought would live.  This twist left readers shocked, but also left them with the realization that death and heartbreak can happen at anytime.  As much as readers sympathize with the family for their struggles and heartbreak, I found myself thinking that this only goes to show that we need to love everyone we care about, as we do not know what the future holds.

I believe that this book is a great read for anyone. Picoult did a wonderful job at showing how something can affect everyone around you, and did so by allowing the majority of her characters to narrate, and made it interesting by having Kate only narrate the prologue and epilogue.  This was interesting to me because Kate was the main focus point for readers and characters alike. It was a wonderfully written novel.  I found myself always interested and although a fictional novel, I was genuinely concerned for the Fitzgeralds. As a future teacher, it allows me to realize that although from the outside families may seem perfectly fine, they may be hiding a secret, or are really struggling with something.  Many teachers would benefit from reading this book as it will allow them to empathize with their students and students' families just as readers did with the characters in My Sister's Keeper.