So I am ahead of everyone else at this point in the reading. I've been trying to stay ahead because I am also working on my dissertation right now so I don't have a ton of free time on my hands & Leslie has a tendency to devote an entire day to reading and will knock a book out in under a day so if that happens I don't want to be eons behind. But in case our schedules don't jive I thought I'd write down my thoughts so far...
So I've read three chapters so far. I'm calling them chapters even though the book isn't really divided into chapters. Every once in a while Picoult will put in a "Case" that are numbered chronologically. I'm guessing these are like chapter markers? At least how I'm treating them. I am not sure why the cases are in the book--they don't have anything to do with the story (as of yet) and they are just a random one page summary of some murder case. We'll see if they have any importance later in the story.
So far I like how Picoult divides up the story from different viewpoints. I like when books show different authors speaking so you can get a different piece of the story from lots of different characters perspectives. The one thing that makes this difficult in this story is the telling of Jacob's perspective. All of the other characters are easy to relate to and there isn't so much "explaining" that is done. I feel like when she is writing from Jacob's perspective she has to do a lot of "this is how people with Asperger's think/act/behave" which makes it seem like Jacob is talking TO the reader, not like the reader is experiencing the story AS the character which is what it seems like when you are reading the other character's perspectives. I don't know how Picoult could make it better and I think she's done a good job of trying to represent the inner workings of someone with Asperger's but it's just different. Also, not really knowing anyone with Asperger's I don't know how "true" it feels. I'm excited to see how it pans out through the rest of the book.
On a sidenote related directly to Asperger's I was a little wary when Picoult went into the whole vaccine related issue (do vaccines cause Autism?). I kind of wish she'd left that out because I didn't think it was relative to the story at all. I know that people who are invested in the debate WANT to talk about it, but it's so controversial I feel like it could have been a potential distraction to the story. I know when it first came up I was ready to just skip over it because I didn't want it to taint the rest of the story. However, I must say, for bringing up the issue Picoult did as good a job as possible to try and stay balanced in the debate. I just wish she wouldn't have brought it up at all.
Another predictable (but kind of annoying) thing that I see developing is a love story between Emma and Rich. It seems like that is one pattern in all of Picoult's books. Two of the main characters, usually two who have "had it hard," end up falling in love. It's one of those stereotypical romance lines that you find in fiction geared towards women that I find distracting and lessens the quality of the story. But that's my bias. Maybe some people like to have romance in all their stories. I'm just here for the interesting part of the plot (the Asperger's storyline).
Another interesting sidenote is that this story doesn't seem to be a "ripped from the headlines" story, which tends to be a lot of Picoult's books. Maybe it is and I'm just not aware of it, but I can't recall ever seeing anything about anyone with Asperger's that may be involved with the criminal justice system. I mean, the connection with Autism being a media-related story is sort-of in line with her past story telling, but that's about it. This doesn't have much to do with my review of the book, but it was just interesting to note.
Overall I am enjoying the book. I'm curious to see what happens because it seems like, at this point, it is obvious who DIDN'T kill Jess, although the real culprit is yet to be identified. I'm only about a fourth of the way through the book so it will be interesting to see what happens as it develops and how Picoult rounds out the story because at this point it doesn't seem like 3/4 of the book could still be about this case! I'm sure she'll do a good job of twisting and turning the story until the end.
I also really liked how Picoult told the story from several different aspects. The people she chose was interesting and also a good number; not too few not too many.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's funny how you pointed out the 'romance' between the Detective and Emma - which was nonexistent after all! I wonder how you felt about the other romance that developed?
In relation to the vaccine discussion...I wonder if she added it because she felt that she had to because so many people talk about it. She did do a good job of remaining pretty impartial although it was brought up again during the trial.
Yeah, it's funny how the relationship between Emma & the Detective changed DRASTICALLY after that point.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other romance I thought it was equally as lame as I thought the first one was going to be. I don't need romance in EVERY book I read and it seems like Picoult just tries to figure out a way to work it in no matter if it makes sense or not. I mean, although this whole "Cougar" phenomenon is a big pop culture topic right now, I find it hard to believe that she and Oliver would have really hooked up given all the circumstances (age difference, professionalism, woman with disabled child, etc.). Anyway, typical Picoult.