Perfect Novel (Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult
Date:	26/07/07 (461 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Insightful, brilliant character descriptions, moving plot.

Disadvantages: Nothing at all.

I love getting stuck into a good book but it seems that I never have the time nowadays to have a good reading session. However when I booked my recent holiday I knew that at the top of my “to do” list would be a note to remind me to get some decent books to read by the pool. Even though my holiday was only eight days long I optimistically packed six books even though deep down I knew I had little chance of getting through even two of them on the lively holiday we’d booked!

The first book I got stuck into while my friends attempted to sleep on the plane was one by Jodi Picoult. She seems to be quite an up and coming author with a particular talent for writing books that you can’t quite put down. I’d previously read two of her other novels and really enjoyed both of them so it was with high hopes I got my self comfy and settled down to read the somewhat oddly titled “Perfect Match” which was published in 2002.

The Author

Jodi Picoult is an American author who at the age of 41 has a massive fourteen books under her belt, the majority of which have soared into the best selling charts in both America and the UK. Her books typically revolve around some sort of court room drama, although I’m led to believe this isn’t consistent in all of them. However before you start thinking that it’s your typical police case, court case, etc. novel there’s a lot more to it than those elements. She manages to incorporate some family and romance drama into each of her books in a way that lightens the otherwise monotonous tone of police crime stories.

The Plot

The main theme behind this novel is one of child molestation which in retrospect possibly wasn’t the lightest of books to take to read beside the pool. It follows an assistant district attorneys journey as she discovers that her young son was abused by a member of society that they considered both a friend and someone they could trust. It follows her journey from the normality and routine of her daily life to her utter despair at discovering what has happened to her son before moving on to look at her resolve to survive this and her complete determination to seek revenge.

Without wanting to give away too much detail the book opens with a personal account of sitting in a court room awaiting a hearing of a male for a child abuse crime. It then tells of standing up, walking through the barrier and calmly shooting the accused several times. Although this account is only just over a page long I was breathless as I read it and it had me instantly hooked. The story then takes you back in time to explain what occurred before this event and then also what occurred following it.

The child begins to display typical behaviour traits which force his parents to take him to a psychiatrist. Here they learn that he has been sexually abused by a male who he later identifies as the family priest. I don’t want to say anything else apart from the fact that the story is not clear cut at all, there are quite a few surprises and plenty of twists which will manage to maintain your attention throughout and arguably make it one of the best books you’ll read this year.

The Characters

There are two main characters in the novel; Nina and Caleb Frost. Nina is the central focus of the story and my initial thoughts of her were that she was a typical mother and loving wife living quite a perfect life it would seem. She helps families deal with difficult times, often as a result of child abuse, and quickly comes to realise that the American justice system is often far from fair. We quickly learn of her strength of character and her never failing love for her small son. We also learn of the guilt she possesses and how heavily it seems to weigh on her shoulders. Despite the story being quite hard hitting she’s a likable character and one the reader can instantly get to grips with, at times it was like I almost knew her and could easily empathise with her.

Caleb is Nina’s husband and we’re not given as great an insight into his feelings and thoughts throughout the novel. Again he seems to inhabit in this perfect world with his son and wife until he learns of what has been done to his small son. Just like Nina, his world seems to fall apart at this news and he struggles to deal with what follows. Although we don’t get to know him as well as we do Nina you can see his strength of character and also his compassion for his family.

In addition to this we’re given short insights into the head of Nathan Frost who Picoult manages to capture perfectly. Through his small passages we learn of how he feels that the abuse is his entire fault and the fact his parents are now arguing as a result of it all is also his fault. We learn of his innocence, his never faltering ability to see the pure simplicity in daily life and above all the sheer childlike purity that we all seem to forget as soon as we get older. Picoult has managed to capture his thoughts exactly as how I’d imagine them to be and she also shows that often children understand a lot more than adults give them credit for.

My Opinion

I felt this novel was absolutely brilliant, the plot easily held my attention and not once did I become impatient or wish the end was nearer. The sordid nature of the plot wasn’t my typical choice of plot but it provided an interesting criticism of the criminal justice system as well as a heart rendering look at a family’s independent struggle to overcome an event which everybody prays will never actually fall on their own doorstep. The failure of the court system is arguably one of the underlying messages of the novel and it is one that I think Picoult has displayed accurately and honestly. There are huge discrepancies within the justice system today and this novel manages to highlight one in a concise and clear way; the fact that the majority of child abuse cases are never tried due to the child being classed as incompetent to give evidence.

With regard to the characters within the novel there are two main ones as well as several others that appear from time to time including Nina’s colleagues and her best friend Patrick, which is where the slight romance storyline comes in to provide a little light relief at times. However rather than providing this light relief I found it quite awkward to read and it annoyed me somewhat that Nina turned to another to provide her with comfort at this time rather than her own family. Nina herself is very easy relate to, from the opening paragraph where her guilt at being a full time working mother comes through to her feelings when she discovers what has happened to her son. I feel that she’d be a woman than many other mothers would easily identify with. Nina as a central character is what some would perhaps consider not your typical heroine, I quite liked her character and felt that Picoult managed to grasp the gist of everything she would be feeling and elaborate on it perfectly. However her slight arrogance and unrelenting drive for revenge does get a little tiresome, I couldn’t help but feel that her focus should have been more on her son rather than fighting for revenge.

The novel itself brings up several morals that most of us hope we are never faced for and certainly already believe that we would abide by the law. What if you knew the law would fail you and that the perpetrator of the crime against you would walk away? Would you sit back and accept this or would you employ your own personal crusade against this? I think most of us hope that we’d abide by the law and sit back, but when it came to the crunch how many people can honestly say this is what they would do? In Picoult’s book lies an answer that is both honest and frightening when Nina attempts to seek her own revenge on those who have hurt her most precious belonging.

The Washington Post – “At the heart of Perfect Match lie the true emotions of motherhood, with all the contradictions and intensity… It is impossible not to be held spellbound by the way she forces us to think, hard, about right and wrong.”

USA Today – “Picoult’s characters are so compelling that the reader hopes this won’t be the last time we meet.”

I finished this book within two days and each time I reluctantly put it down I couldn’t wait to start reading it again. I find that it’s very rare that I get so passionate about a novel and indeed there’s very few that I’ve read which I’d say I had 100% enjoyed. I felt anger, disgust, upset, etc. and never before have I had feelings quite so vivid from a book alone. Although the content of this wasn’t exactly light reading it wasn’t quite like anything I’d ever read before making it one of this most refreshing reads of the past couple of years. This book gets the full five stars from me, I can’t wait to read another one!

Summary: A book centred on a child abuse case by Jodi Picoult.