| Product: |
Mercy - Jodi Picoult |
| Date: |
21.07.08 (111 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Realistic out look on love and relationships, realistic characters
Disadvantages: Some characters with no redeeming qualities, upsetting and hard to read at parts
As always with Jodi Picoult books, this story surrounds a crime and the subsequent courtcase but this is actually a relatively small part of this book so I wouldn't really class it as a courtroom drama or crime novel but most definitely a character driven drama. Whilst the main topic being explored is love and relationships, I find it to be far from a romance, so if you go into it expecting it to be one you could be disappointed. It's about love, yes, but it's more exploring the whole "it's not always rainbows and butterflies" aspect of things, and is about human nature and how people act and what drives us to do the things we do.
Whilst book covers can vary depending which edition you can buy, Jodi Picoult books seem to have been recently redone to all have covers with the same theme - a moral dilemma and then the same tag line each time; "What would you do?". On the front of the cover here is the dilemma; "The love of your life asks for your help to die. What would you do?" I think more often than not these simple phrases on the front of the book tell you all you need to know. It's enough to spark interest and start actually considering what you would do, which instantly involves you and engages you. It gives a snippit of the story without even having to turn over and read the blurb.
Usually this line will sum up the story almost in whole, but here I'm not entirely sure that's the case. The plot is around the story of what that line would suggest, but it's not essentially just about that and for me the bigger storyline was to do with characters around this central story, rather than the story itself. I think it's actually quite a shame as I was really intrigued with the premise of the story and would have liked it to focus more on this than it did, but that's not to say the book wasn't good.
The book is centred around the story of a man named Jamie McDonald, who kills his wife, who is dying from cancer and begs for his help. He chooses to go to a town where his cousin who he hasn't seen since childhood lives to do this, as his cousin is the Police Chief here. His cousin is Cameron McDonald who is restless and dissatisfied in his role and life, and not happy at Jamie's appearance into his life. Cameron's wife Allie is more supportive of Jamie as she thinks what he did was terribly romantic. On the same day Jamie pulls up at the police station to hand himself in, a woman named Mia walks into the flowershop Allie runs and subsequently ends up a large part of her life.
The book is all about love and yet it's not a romance. It explores what we will do for those we love, what we can do to those we love, what we will do for love, and the balance of love within a relationship. The book and everything that happens within it, centres around the theory that the love in any relationship is never equal; it's always 60%-40% or 70-30% or some other variation. There was always someone who wanted the other person first, or more, who made it happen and has spent all their time since ensuring the relationship worked. Unfortunately, the truth of this made it somewhat a depressing read for me at least. It rang very true, and if you think of any couple you know, it's almost instantly identifiable who loves who more. It's sad but true. I've been on both sides of this equation, and I guess it just made the book a bit depressing reading something you know is true but desperately don't want to be. It also explores the idea that this equation can change throughout different times and stages of relationships which I also find true.
The plot is good and of course the book doesn't just talk about this equation but everything that happens within in it, from Jamie's relationship with his now late wife, to Cameron's relationship with Allie, can all relate back to it.
Jodi Picoult's books always are about a topic that are something people don't necessarily want to think about and tend to prefer to stick their head in the sand about and they make you confront this issue and think about it. If you look at the subjects of her novels; school shootings, child abduction, suicide, rape, abuse, murder etc then you get the idea. They should be an uncomfortable read and at parts are but usually are done so well that they never feel tactless but never feel to be treading on egg shells to be polictially correct - they always feel real. Now the thing is here, the thing it is supposedly making you think about, is in essence Euthanisia, which would be a controversial topic itself, but I found the thing it made me think about and confront was that balance of love within a relationship, and I actually found this harder to confront than all those other topics she has covered, perhaps because I have direct experience of it whereas I can still keep myself somewhat distanced from the other topics.
It's good that it does make you think and perhaps could help a lot of people stop and think about their own relationships although this can be a hard thing to do.
The book is, actually quite a depressing read. It's the most depressing Jodi Picoult book I've read, which may sound odd considering the subject matters. It had me in floods of tears, not just the odd tear escaping the eye, at parts of it. I had taken it on holiday as I found in the past Jodi Picoult books, while thoroughly engrossing and entertaining weren't depressing reads, obviously they aren't light hearted reads but they normally weren't as dark as I found this to be. Be warned, you may look a bit daft crying your eyes out around the pool!
That said I don't mean to sound like I didn't like this book. I did! I know,I know, enjoying something depressing is a little odd, but it was a really great read as the plot was great, as was the reality to the characters and the subject matter, and it was well written and flowed well and moved along with just the right pacing.
The characters, as usual with Jodi Picoult books are one of the things that really set it apart from other books. Yes the plot is unique and somewhat controversial, but it's the character's that really bring the issue to life and make you care so much about what is happening as they are so well written it is so hard to remember that they aren't real and it's impossible not to empathies and find understanding in a lot of their actions. This is one of Jodi Picoult's earlier books and I've found with more recent works that you can find some degree of understanding in almost everyone's actions even if you don't agree with the actions themselves. Here that isn't so prevalent, with some characters doing things that just make you hate the character, rather than be able to feel understanding towards them.
It's impossible to not feel strongly about the character's here which is perhaps what makes is such an emotional read. There are character's you will most probably despise, and character's you will love, and most probably character's you will relate too. I'd much rather it have this blend than have character's who I didn't feel anything at all about. The fact that you feel so strongly towards the characters, be it in a positive or negative manner, is so much more engaging and compelling and involves you as a reader so much more.
As always I of course don't want to say much about the ending for obvious reasons but as for whether it was satisfactory or not is debatable. When reading it I instantly felt quite disappointed and let down as a lot of people who've read it have, and wished I could almost re write the ending to give the conclusion I wanted. After further thought on it though, I felt whilst it wasn't perhaps the ending I would have pushed for if I had any choice in the matter, it was actually quite a wise ending and again is something that makes you think for quite sometime after it, so I guess in some senses it was the perfect ending, just not the one I'd initially hoped for.
This was far from a fun read and I actually in some senses found it difficult to read. I feel quite contradictary as in one sense it was an easy read; it flowed well, it held my interest, I got through the story I no time as I constantly wanted to read more. However, in the other sense, it was really difficult because it was a depressing read and actually sometimes went as far as leaving me in a bad mood after reading it! I think this only goes to show how much her books can touch and affect you though.
The book is definitely one to make you think and reflect and one that will stay with me a long time. This is all due to how well the character's are written, they are so well developed.
There was one aspect of the story I wasn't keen on, which was it had elements of Scottish history in it and flashback scenes involving this. I felt they didn't serve the story at all and actually found them to be really boring and found myself drifting off whilst reading them. I have never been bored reading any of Jodi Picoult's books before and these were only a small part but I felt they shouldn't of been included as they were quite boring and the story didn't really require them.
I don't think the book would be offensive as such to anyone but it could be difficult for some people to read, depending on their own personal experiences of love and relationships, it's the sort of thing that could hit a nerve and be hard to accept as the truth.
I think the book would appeal to anyone who has enjoyed any other Jodi Picoult book's or for anyone who likes a good character driven drama or for anyone interested in a not so "lovey-dovey" look at love and relationships but a more realistic take.
Summary: Refreshing yet depressing take on love
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