Sensitive subject matter crafted into a gripping novel (Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult)

Member Name: lonestarsky

Product:	Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult
Date:	17/12/08 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, realistic characters, interesting moral dilemme

Disadvantages: Slow at the start, repetitive in parts

I have read a few of Jodi Picoult's books as I find her style easy to read and her characters realistic. "Perfect Match" was the latest book I read after finding it in a charity shop four days ago. I was so desperate to find out what happens at the end that I have barely been able to put it down!


PLOT
Jodi Picoult is renowned for writing novels about moral dilemmas that readers can only pray they never have to face. And this book is no exception. Nina Frost is an assistant district attorney who prosecutes people who commit sex crimes. She lives with her husband Caleb and five year old son Nathaniel and has a close relationship with Patrick, a policeman and childhood friend. However when the usually outgoing Nathaniel suddenly becomes mute, career-focused Nina has to turn her full attention to her son. They take him to a child psychiatrist and discover that he has been sexually abused.

Nina, who works with child sex abuse cases every day, knows that it is rare to secure a conviction. Plus she does not want to put Nathaniel through the distress of taking the stand. So she takes the law into her own hands. When the perpetrator is finally identified, Nina shoots him in the courtroom.

What follows is Nina trying to justify and come to terms with her actions, as well as salvage her relationships with her husband and son. She works with her one-time adversary Fisher Carrington, a defence attorney, to plead insanity in order to prevent a lengthy jail sentence.

As with other Picoult books, the plot is not straightforward and there are a few twists that keep the story alive, including an interesting and unexpected twist at the end.


CHARACTERS
Picoult is excellent at creating characters and I found Nina realistic and flawed. I can imagine why she was driven to do what she did, particularly as she watches child molesters walk free every day due to lack of evidence. She was so hell-bent on revenge that it never occurred to her just how her actions would affect her son, and that although she has killed the person responsible, she may end up leaving her son without a mother if she is jailed. And how can she continue to protect him once she is in jail?

Caleb is not as well developed as Nina but his devotion to his son and confusion over his feelings for Nina are well crafted and realistic. The twist at the end of the book involves Caleb and it left me viewing him in a very different light.

Picoult always manages to create realistic child characters and the sections of the novel from Nathaniel's point of view contain wonderful childlike observations.

Patrick was likeable in his loyalty to Nina and his relationship with Nathaniel but I found his infatuation with her a bit pathetic and somewhat distracting.


STYLE
The story is told from various points of view which give the reader a wide insight to everything that is happening. Nina's sections are told in first person so that we know exactly what is going on inside her head, whereas the rest of the novel is in third person. The style is easy to read as it is easy to identify who's point of view we are reading.


MY OPINION
I found the story quite slow to start with although the prologue had me hooked (the prologue is Nina shooting the alleged perpetrator in the courtroom). When the story starts, it goes back to the day Nathaniel became mute. I also found the story repetitive in parts and found myself scanning over some sections of text later in the book. This is a problem I find in a few of Picoult's books; we read what happens to the characters but then we have to read it again when the case goes to court and the witnesses are cross-examined. Sometimes this can be interesting as it can show how attorneys can twist the words of witnesses but at other times it is just a re-hash of what we already know.

The amount of research undertaken by Picoult for her novels is, as always, excellent. There is a twist regarding a DNA sample that is so obscure I would never have imagined it possible, and which gives the novel its title.

I would say that this book would make hard reading for anyone who is a parent. I am not a parent but I found myself feeling Nina's anger and frustration as well as great sorrow as she feels she has failed as a mother by not protecting her son, and indeed by pushing him towards his abuser.

This is an emotive and well written novel and Picolut has handled a delicate subject with great tact. It will make you think, and wonder if a wrong action can ever be right if it is done for the right reason.

Summary: The style is easy reading but the subject matter is a bit heavier