Review of My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
This is a kind of book I read and saw. Indeed, this is a work written, translated and turned into a movie. I read the Italian edition of the book first, and later I saw the movie. I am discussing about My Sister’s Keeper, a compelling and heartbreaking novel written by American author Jodi Picoult. I think this is a book about life, death, affection and family relationship. With this fiction, the author faces a hard and touching topic, namely the one about a severe and deadly disease and about the reactions of parents and relatives.
The book tells the story of a family consisting of Anna, the last born, Kate, the first born, affected from leukaemia, or rather, a type called APL, acute promyelocytic leukaemia, a brother, a father and a mother, Sara. Kate was affected by the disease when she was still a baby and so, her parents, but, above all, Sara, decided to have another child suitable to donate the blood and the bone marrow to her sick sister.
One day, Anna, who was conceived through articial insemination, goes to a lawyer to start a lawsuit against her parents and stop to donate the blood to her sister. This apparently cruel decision hides, in reality, all the sorrow and concerns of a family torn between to heal the first sick daughter and let the healthy daughter live her life. Who is right in this story? And who is wrong? The mother, who is ready to do anything to save a daughter from a blood cancer? Or the little Anna, forced to donate their organs since she was born?
This story explores the complex family relationships without any shame and hesitation, but with a heartfelt and clear language that pushes readers to go from the first to the last page to discover what happens in the next chapters. I must admit I have cried during this reading and during the movie, that, in turn, matches perfectly with the plot of the book. Here is because I say that the book is a bright and glowing example of intimate writing based on feeling and emotion.
The work also unveils a poignant, unexpected and unforeseeable conclusion that always focuses our attention on the initial topic: up to that point it is right to save a child at the cost to not respect the other ones? It is not easy to find answers in a similar case, but the book is able to provide these answers. In the plot, the several characters speak in first person, each of the chapters is written according to the point of view of a personage and what emerges from these pages is a strong clinging on to life and the desire to love despite disease and death.
Love anyway and always and until you can is the message coming from this touching story, a so beautiful fiction to seem true, true as only affection and family relationships can be. My Sister’s Keeper was released in 2009 and in the same year was also made the namesake movie with Cameron Diaz in the role of Sara, the mother, and Alec Baldwin in the one of the lawyer who has defended Anna during the trial against her parents.
To buy the book, please see this preview and read the excerpt
Rosalba Mancuso is the journalist, born in Sicily, who founded four websites in English. On Advicesbooks Book Reviews, Rosalba shows her great passion for books, helping readers and book lovers choose and buy the best books she read and reviewed. She also worked as a contributor for printed publications and online magazines and as a bilingual Italian-English writer. Here, Rosalba also offers room to authors and publishers who want to get their books reviewed through the voice of an avid reader like her. You must also know that this book review site lives thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you buy books through the affiliate links you find in her book reviews. This website is also funded by services of press releases and book reviews.
