Monthly Review

My Sister's Keeper is a novel by Jodi Picoult that tells the story of the Fitzgerald family and their problems. Sara and Brian are the parents, and Jesse, Kate, and Anna are the children. Sara gave up pursuing her career as a lawyer to be a mother and Brian is the captain of the fire department in Providence, where they live.  Jesse is 18, and a stereotypical "bad kid", involved with drugs, drinking, and a pyromaniac.  Kate is 16, and was diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia at a very young age. Her illness has been the root of her family's problems ever since. One year after Kate was diagnosed, her sister Anna was conceived to be a perfect match to be a donor for Kate.  When Anna is thirteen, Kate has a kidney failure and Anna's mother asks Anna to donate one of her kidneys to her sister.  Then Anna hires Campbell Alexander to file a lawsuit to sue her parents for the rights to her own body, because she doesn't want to be a donor anymore. This comes as a shock to her parents, who have been focusing their attention on Kate's health.  They feel as if Anna is being extremely selfish and immature as to let her sister die just so she can get attention from her parents.  Sara Fitzgerald chooses to represent herself in this case, which leads to Anna being appointed a guardian ad litem named Julia.  This novel is written through each character's perspective, and it includes anecdotes from each person's life.  This book questions what the morally right thing is to do when you are faced with the realities that life throw at you.



Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
I really couldn't choose just one character from the book to analyze, so I decided to try all of them.  I hope you don't mind too much.

Jodi Picoult shows Sara's unconditional love for her family, her endless concern for Kate's health, and her desire to have a somewhat normal life.  She also shows Sara's bitterness and how she finds it extremely unfair that her daughter ended up being so ill.  Many of the parts written through Sara's perspective are about periods of time in her past, when her children were much younger.  Picoult portrays Brian as the father who feels the constant need to play the white knight, and the man who spoils his children with love.  He can also be emotional, especially because of the emotional twists and turns that Kat's illness has put the family through.  Jesse is the most interesting character in this book, in my opinion.  He is a very damaged person.  He is perpetually frustrated because he wasn't a match to be Kate's donor, and he couldn't help her when she first needed it.  He also feels the need to act out through drugs, alcohol, theft, and arson.  This is probably all indirectly connected to trying to get his parents' attention, since they have focused all their attention on Kate ever since she was diagnosed.  Kate is probably a close second to being the most damaged, but she is more hurt physically than mentally or emotionally.  She has been through a lot for 13 years, including her first love dying from cancer without even getting a chance to say goodbye.  Anna has always played the role of her sister's savior, the donor for her whenever she needed anything donated, from bone marrow to blood.  She is just a confused teenage girl who couldn't picture her life without her sister but insisted on suing her parents so that she wouldn't have to donate a kidney to Kate.  I guess you just have to read the book to find out the REAL reason why she has done this. :)  Campbell and Julia were former lovers, but broke it off when they were 18.  They are both very guarded people, but very much different.  Campbell has a very dark sense of humor and seems to be always sarcastic.  Julia thinks that he is terrified of commitments and getting too close to people.  Maybe that is just her opinion, because she is definitely one to think with her heart before her head.  Obviously, my attempts at describing the characters in this story are nothing compared to Jodi Picoult's fabrications, but moreso analyses of her detailed descriptions. 




If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?

Unlike most novels (and this includes my last lit circle book, Suite Scarlett), this book actually really makes you think.  It makes you question yourself if you were put in any of these characters' positions.  What would YOU do if you knew the sole purpose of your life was to save your sister's life?  And if one of your beloved children was dying, while another was in the process of suing you for medical emancipation?  How do you represent a thirteen year old girl who keeps changing her mind about the case, while being put up against her mother as the opposing council?  Questions like these pop into the reader's head when they read this book.

Other books in the genre are typically more "lighter" reads.  I'll use my last book, Suite Scarlett, as an example.  In that book, the family problems included running an almost vacant hotel, dealing with a brat who beat leukemia, disliking a sister's rich boyfriend, and putting on a play.  In My Sister's Keeper, however, the family issues include a troubled and damaged son, a dying daughter who has slim chances of living past 17, and another daughter who is suing you.  As you can probably see (I hope), the issues in My Sister's Keeper tend to run a little deeper than in the other book.

I really enjoy Jodi Picoult's style of writing, whether it's like this in each of her books or not.  I like how she writes the book from each character's perspective, but saved Kate's perspective for the very end of the book.  I also really like the way she put stories that pertain the the respective character that is narrating that particular section.  It really shows each person's train of thought, drifting between past, present, and sometimes even the future.






In conclusion, My Sister's Keeper was an amazing book and I really enjoyed it.  Hopefully next month's book is equally as good. :)