by
Jodi Picoult's novel Change of Heart will be on my favorites list of books that I have read in 2012. It is a book of many layers and as the August selection for my library reading group, will offer an opportunity for discussion on many levels. This is a story of a man on death row who is convicted of a double murder of a little girl and her step father. The mother/wife of these victims was not at home at the time of the murders because she was at a OB/GYN appointment. At the time the novel begins the baby is now an 11 year old girl who was born with a congenital heart and is now in desperate need for a transplant. The death row inmate convicted for her sisters death hears of her need on the news and wants to donate his heart to her as it is time for his execution. The story introduces: a priest who became a priest due to sitting on the jury that sentenced the death sentence in this case, a lawyer from the Civil Liberties Union that is the daughter of a Rabbi, doctors, a judge, a warden, fellow inmates, correctional officers, a conservative fundamentalist preacher, a grieving wife and mother, a sick little girl, and a burn victim from a case of arson. The novel wrestles with the pros and cons of capital punishment, the definition of religion, the gnostic gospels, medical ethics, and legal ethics. It is the kind of book you have to intermittently stop reading and ponder awhile. Please enjoy the following video of the author and don't forget to click on the title and the author's name above to follow the links to more information. I highly recommend this book.
I received the following comment in my email box and am copying it here with the author's permission:
ReplyDeleteI concur with at least most of the above and ad the following: I like the technic of using differently fonted main character names, as or, in the place of chapter headings, with the accompanying personal viewpoint. This also helped me to keep the storyline and characters straight in my head.
I've previously known of the inefficiency, non logical, and utter overt cruelty of the death sentence instead of life in prison and only can think that the reason for the continuance of the former is for some sort of victim revenge and temporary polical advantage of those who use such hot button issues to gain undue power and influence, not even close to justice tempered by mercy.
The Gnostic Gospels are interesting but like all other human traditions based on evolutionary partialities and ancient misconceptions leave plenty of room for improvement in these more modern times. Maybe, we as the top dog animals on this planet could possibly seek first the dynamic truths of higher reality levels, based on known science, philosophy, and revelatory universal truths, and discontinue the usage of the traditions of the past that no longer serve any purpose, and are at best cold dead historical facts, that are only useful for comparisons and genealogy research.
Otherwise this book deserves a 5 on the scale of 1 to 5. The plot thickens in surprising and enjoyable ways, and is thought provoking at the least, I'm just not into the magical parts that much. - Tim
Thanks Tim for your comment. I agree that the magical parts were a bit much. I think the author uses them as a tool and I did not view them from the perspective that they happened. After all, it is a fiction book. That being said, I am not sure that they did not detract from instead of enhance the story line.
ReplyDelete