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Mercy by Jodi Picoult |
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Harvesting the Heart: A Novelby Jodi Picoult |
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The author of Picture Perfect "explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood" (New York Times Book Review). Paige's mother left when she was five. When Paige becomes a mother herself, she is overwhelmed by the demands. Unable to forget her past, Paige struggles with the difficulties of marriage and motherhood.
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Compelling but unsatisfying -  |
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel Review |
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I enjoyed this book and found the storyline very compelling, but like many other reviewers by the middle of the book I found myself feeling a little let down. Neither one of the main characters was very sympathetic, particularly Nicholas, who quite frankly turns out to be a jerk who behaves irrationally and doesn't understand his own motivations. By the time Paige starts camping out on his doorstep I have no remaining sympathy for the guy, which makes it hard for me to care if Paige gets through to him or not because I feel like she's better off without him anyway. The thing that bothered me the most about this book, though, is that there was no resolution for any of the primary conflicts. Without revealing too much, it was obvious to me that the reason Paige leaves her husband and son is because she's not ready to be a mother and because her overworked husband isn't taking any of the load off of her (she's at home with a colicky baby 24 hours a day, usually by herself, and he never so much as changes a diaper). But she tells Nicholas she left because she thinks she's a bad mother, which I suppose is related but I don't think is really the same thing. So Nicholas is never really made to understand what she was going through, which makes me as a reader feel like I need to reach into the pages myself and smack him around a little bit. Nicholas, for his part, upon learning Paige's secret, is overcome by illogical, selfish and stupid jealousy, yet this is never addressed by Paige, his family, or anyone -- instead, everyone is left shrugging their shoulders and going, "oh well, maybe he'll snap out of it." I don't want to give away the ending, but that was the biggest disappointment of all -- more unresolved conflicts, no satisfaction for the reader. I know it's trendy in Hollywood to end stories that way, but I devote a lot more than 90 minutes to reading a novel and at the end I want to feel like I didn't waste my time. I don't need a happy ending, I just need an ending. |
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A disappointment compared to Picoult's other books -  |
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel Review |
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I've been a big fan of many of Jodi Picoult's books, especially "Change of Heart" and "My Sister's Keeper," but this book was a huge disappointment. The storyline, like the main character, can't seem to figure out where it wants to go. My biggest problem with the book, however, is the main male character. Nicholas is such a complete jerk, arrogant, angry, selfish and self-absorbed . . . I was honestly hoping that he'd be hit by a truck so that Paige and her son could put their lives together and move on. I would not have been surprised if he had turned out to be a physically abusive husband--he has all of the psychological characteristics of an abuser. I could not believe that he could change, and so I did not want the lovers to reunite. I wanted Paige to take her son and run away and never be found. A frustrating read, to say the least! |
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Dealing with the past - |
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel Review |
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Before I begin, I have to say that I'm very biased when it comes to Ms. Picoult. I first saw her at a book signing for Nineteen Minutes and instantly liked her. Since that book signing, I've read nine of her books, with the intention of reading her entire collection. Having said that, I have to say the first part of Harvesting the Heart was extremely difficult for me to get into. I never thought of putting it down or reading another book. At times I had to force myself to read and looking back, I'm glad that I did.
I don't want to say too much about the storyline and when things began to pick up for me, (may be a spoiler for some) but after a certain event happened, I couldn't stop reading. After I finished reading the book, I thought about my feelings regarding the first chapters. When Paige and Nicholas first meet, they are from different worlds. He has had everything handed to him and she has given up a dream that she feels she doesn't deserve. Despite their differences, they fall in love and decide to marry. During the early years of their marriage, I consider Nicholas to be extremely selfish and Paige to be very passive. Even for them, it was hard for both of them to be with the other. So, I'm wondering, as the reader, was it hard for me to be with them as well. As I mentioned earlier, Paige comes to a crossroad in the marriage where she has to choose to move ahead or finally deal with the past she left behind. She makes a decision, that will set in motion events that will determine the fate of her marriage. Harvesting the Heart, for me, was typical Jodi Picoult. I finished the book with many questions and could not stop thinking about the characters. Actually, what was missing was a trial scene. Having read most of her recent books first, it was nice to go back and read one of her earlier works. Ms. Picoult has grown as a writer, however even then she knew how to tell a story. |
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Harvesting the advance money - |
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel Review |
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Ever hear one of those recordings by some female singer who whines about what seems to be a perfectly nice life, then in the next song whines about how she didn't realize what a nice life she had until she lost it? That's this book. You can almost taste the unwashed beatnik hair you swallowed down in your triple decaf sugar free soy latte just thinking about it. So here's this dumb self-important artsy chick (you know the type) simpering around feeling incompetent, waitressing and watching TV, though she theoretically has the gift to see into people's souls in her drawings (the undeveloped hook that probably got the publisher to agree to this piece of schlock). Finally, three months after giving birth, she decides to "find herself" (yes, really) by searching for the mother who had abandoned her, whom she finds, and proceeds to go riding around for several months on some stupid horse metaphor. Bawltagonist claims she feels guilty to have abandoned her three-month-old child, but, well, maybe not that guilty, giddyup. Perhaps the abandoned child-turned-mother finding her own long lost mother is supposed to be poignant, but fails. I really like Picoult's work, I hoped for a while that she was just really deftly writing sniveltagonist this way on purpose to point out that babies do better with mothers that don't sit around watching TV and shaking in their house slippers at the notion of motherhood, but alas, she never got there. A couple of Gymboree classes and maybe a Mommy and Me series would have fixed everything right up for the boobtagonist in this story. But I guess artsy chick tragictagonists in artsy chick touchy feely novels don't do Gymboree. Certainly not. Picoult makes out that the dumbtagonist is strictly neeto, and if you look at her picture, she didn't even bother to do much to change the appearance of the twitagonist from an idealized version of herself. Maybe the book is little more than a long excuse for herself. It certainly has that air. Even the husband's mother celebrates puletagonist's 'bravery' in abandoning her child because (according to Picoult's undertext) of course all mothers secretly want to abandon their infant children, and even the father has the same secret wish. Oh and here's another nice cliche, the grandparents find fulfillment when having a three-month-old child sprung on them by their irresponsible adult children. Sure. It all just really creeps me out. Picoult must have needed some fast cash or something, because this is such a lame book, poorly thought-out, brimming with cliches such as this stupid epiphany: "I laugh out loud at my own discovery...I ran for miles and miles and miles just to realize what I really wanted was right here." Come on, now, publishers - let's put a morontorium on the "my own backyard" epiphany, can we? I'm begging you. It's just too dumb. Anyway, this book is little more than a literati's version of General Hospital minus the humor and charisma and everybody being somebody's secret love child. Go read Nineteen Minutes if you want to read Picoult, that's a brilliant book. |
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Harvesting the Heart -  |
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel Review |
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Book arrived within the time stated and was in GREAT shape. Very pleased with this purchase. |
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