Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

OK . . .so I am on a Jodi Picoult kick. I read my first book by her on a friend's recommendation. I wasn't going to keep reading her, but then Tim recommended The Pact (which I still haven't read yet, but is on my Books Free list) and I decided to give all of her stuff a go. In fact, the next 6 or 7 books on my Books Free list are from her.

So, Salem Falls. Pretty much it's a modern day The Crucible. Jack, who was wrongly accused of rape the previous year, comes to Salem Falls after being released from jail. The local diner owner gives him a chance and he becomes a dishwasher there. A local teenage girl, Gillian, is the typical pretty, popular, and rich kid-meaning she is all fucked up. This generalization comes from books and movies-not anything I have seen in real life. Well, except Paris Hilton.

Gillian has a crush on Jack. Being a witch (meaning she and her friends are wiccans), she casts some spells to try and attract Jack to her. Jack, being convicted of rape of a minor in the past, stays far away. Then he catches her and her friends in the middle of a wiccan celebration. He rebuffs her advances and boom-she accuses him of rape.

I've decided that Picoult's books aren't captivating enough to keep me up all night reading (like Anita Shreve does), but they are really good books. The one lesson I have come to learn is: there is always something Picoult leaves hanging. In the last book-I didn't know whether or not Faith had really seen God or was making it up. In this book, I can't figure out if Gillian's father knew that she was lying (and provided the semen left on her thigh) or if he believed her (and where exactly did the semen come from). I also think that the last page of the book implies that he has been molesting her (maybe even sleeping with her) since her mother died. Things like that bug me. Maybe that's her personal touch, they way she likes to write-blah, blah, blah. I hate it. I want things to be tied up at the end. I don't want to spend anymore time wondering. I finished the book. My reward should be closure.

It's a good book. All her books are good. I will probably keep reading them. I guess I am going to have to suck it up and get over the whole "no closure" thing.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

So, after reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, I decided I liked it enough to give her other books a whirl. That's saying a lot, considering I hardly ever decide to read the author's collection after one book. So, I got onto Books Free and added her to my list.

The first book I got-Keeping Faith-is about a little girl who supposedly sees God. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances in it all-for example, the little girl, Faith, was not raised any religion, yet can recite Hebrew and verses from the bible. This isn't just-I see God in my grilled cheese sandwich-we have Faith resurrecting the dead and curing AIDS.

The best part about the book is it doesn't preach to you. Although it's the center of the story, the God thing takes a backstage to the characters and what they are going through. In the end-you are left to wonder (at least I felt this way) if it was all a scam or if she really saw God. In fact, I had to read the last part 3 times and I still couldn't figure out if she was doing it for attention or if she had been seeing God, but now, no longer.

I think what was most interesting was this was all (in my mind) directly related to her parent's divorce-or more specifically, walking in on her Father with the "other woman". For obvious reasons-this speaks to me and my experiences. I begin to wonder about how Joe, Dawn and I all dealt with our parent's divorce. I have never asked her-but I am certain Dawn's memories are much different from mine and Joe's-as we had each other and she was an only child. To that end-Dawn ended up receiving a real Father, while Joe and I really never had a Father figure growing up. But did any of us begin speaking to God? Or make up an imaginary friend. It's fascinating that you can take 100 people, put them in the same situation and there will be 100 different reactions and actions.

All in all-I loved the book and I am excited to continue reading Picoult's work. Now, if I could only find the time.