| Product: |
Keeping Faith - Jodi Picoult |
| Date: |
01.07.06 (1230 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: different storyline, unpredictable
Disadvantages: bland characters, not for everyone
Mariah White's dreams of a stable family life are shattered for a second time during her marriage when she catches her husband Colin with another woman. To make matters worse, Faith, her seven-year old daughter, witnesses the unhappy incident of "the other woman" exiting the bathroom in her parents' bedroom.
Things happen very quickly after the incident. Colin moves out, Mariah struggles not to break down with depression and Faith develops an imaginary friend. At first Faith's imaginary friend appears to be a normal response of a child that has just witnessed a tragic incident, however, as she begins to develop stigmata and seemingly to perform healings, Mariah and several other individuals begin to feel that the imaginary friend may be God. This goes against the beliefs of the church, that feels that it is impossible for a Jewish girl to get in touch with God. And it goes against the beliefs of influential people in the media, most notably, Ian Fletcher - to such an extent that the house of the White family is suddenly tracked down and invaded by the media.
As doubting Colin finds out about the situation, he strongly feels that Faith's stigmata and episodes are caused by Mariah - and he soon launches a custody suit that tests Mariah's strength to the limits.
***My opinion***
This book was highly recommended to me. It therefore came as a major disappointment to me that it took me such a long time to get into the story. As someone who does not believe in miracles and sightings of God, I found it difficult to enjoy the book at first. As the story takes places in a very realistic day-to-day setting, I did not know whether to read it as a work of science fiction or non-fiction.
As I progressed through my reading, however, I managed to suspend by own beliefs and to ignore whether I believed it was possible that Faith was seeing God. I found that there was plenty going on that made the book interesting to read, even though the question of religion, faith and beliefs clearly ran through every page. I wanted to read on to see whether Mariah, a person that appears so weak at the beginning of the story, would grow stronger and would be able to deal with all the complications that were thrown at her. I wanted to know what would happen in a custody suit. I wanted to know if any of the disbelieving characters, especially Ian Fletcher, would change their minds about the existence of God. And I certainly wanted to know about Faith's fate.
One of the attractions of the story line is the fact that the reader truly does not know where the author is going to take it - and at times it almost feels like the author did not have a set plan when writing the book - and merely took it chapter by chapter - like a stream of consciousness. This makes the book incredibly addictive - there is no time to analyse what might happen, there is simply too much going on. The only way to solve the mystery is to keep reading.
While the storyline is developed well and does keep the reader on his toes, there is a slight issue with the portrayal of the characters. I found most of the main characters bland and I found it difficult to put faces and personalities to them. They were almost invisible to me. Mariah, as the mother, simply annoyed me. I wanted to sympathise with her and all the tragedies she had to go through, but I simply felt like she was a stupid spineless woman. I suppose my opinion changed slightly by the end of the book - but I simply never cared enough about what would happen to her one way or the other. In the custody battle, for example, I could not clearly side with her. Whilst I had a strong aversion to the cheating husband, I was entirely neutral as to who I thought should have custody of Faith.
Faith herself was a little bland as well. I somehow felt that Picoult should have made more of the feelings that Faith had once her parents separated - but then again, I am neither a mother nor a child psychologist. It is very well possible that a child, at age seven, would simply withdraw and develop an imaginary friend rather than throwing a tantrum. However, if only there would have been a couple of chapters which described the thoughts in Faith's head, then it would perhaps have worked a little better.
Picoult does try to get into Mariah's head by flitting between first person and third person throughout the book. However, these transitions are hardly noticeable - and Picoult might as well not have bothered, because to the reader it still comes across as a third party narrative - distant rather than intimate.
My hardcopy of the book had 468 pages, divided into 18 chapters. Even though the chapters are fairly long, it is easy to find a place to stop somewhere during each chapter, as there are subheadings in the form of dates. Each chapter is also headed with spiritual quotes - but to be quite honest, I merely skipped over these as I just wanted to know where the story was going.
***The verdict***
The read was certainly enjoyable and lingers in my memory as something that is a little different from the mass-produced thrillers and chick lit that usually floods the bookstores. For readers who are keenly interested in spiritual issues, this will be a real find - as Picoult manages to bring questions of faith and spiritualism into every page and certainly does make one think about the existence of God. For a doubting Thomas, parts of the story may become annoying or repetitive - but on a whole the book does offer enough enjoyment for everyone.
***Further information***
Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 468
Price: £12.99 (hardcover), £6.99 paperback
Summary: A rather different read.
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