A Note About Jodi Picoult

I’ve read a number of Jodi Picoult books now. I’ve read “Picture Perfect,” “The Tenth Circle,” “Plain Truth,” “Vanishing Acts,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Nineteen Minutes,” and “The Pact.” And I’m inevitably going to keep seeking out Picoult novels that I haven’t read yet, since I know for a fact that there are plenty more. You would think that that fact alone implies that I love her writing, but the truth is that I’m still somewhat conflicted in my opinion of her as an author.

Truth be told, her style seems similar to what mine would be if I were writing novels. She writes like a woman, an intuitive one at that, as she focuses on the private and emotional experiences of the various characters in her novels. She has the gift of distinguishing between her fictional characterizations, writing about the secret thoughts that one has and then about the inner world of another, without spreading her omnipotent knowledge among her characters. She holds out hints of secrets without revealing them until the end of the book, thus effectively holding her readers in, and really creates a complex and realistic web of interactions, thoughts, emotions, secrets, and behaviors.

At the same time, though, I hesitate to endorse her completely. First off, she is so damn trendy. I’m the kind of person who will like a band less when I find out that they’ve topped top-40 charts, received constant play on the radio, and become known to millions of people. I like the bands that fly below the radar better, even if that makes me seem condescending in my lack of faith in the populace’s ability to select “good” music. Similarly, Jodi Picoult is very popular among book clubs, Amazon.com shoppers, friends of mine, and, it seems, just about everyone. Before I started reading her books, a friend of mine was an avid Picoult fan and would tell me about the plot of the latest book that she was reading on our daily walks, and I received simultaneous recommendations by other people, as well, including a librarian at Kent State. Most people would take such popularity to mean that she is a talented, insightful author. To an extent, I do. I respect her abilities greatly. Yet, at the same time, her popularity makes me less inclined to seek out the next novel. I’m not sure why, but I can’t help the feeling that it makes her seem less appealing to me.

Also, the problem with reading so many books by the same author is that at some point, you inevitably begin picking up on her patterns. In high school, I discovered and discarded Mary Higgins Clark in the space of a year because I was so frustrated by how all her novels seemed to fit the same exact formula, and though I read a lot of her books that year, I haven’t read one since for that reason. Judgmental? Possibly. Anyway, Jodi Picoult does not write from a formula like Mary Higgins Clark does (and her characters are far deeper and complex), but she does have patterns. Her books start off with some Big Event – a rape, a shooting, a death, a shocking revelation – and this Event alters the course of life for a handful of relevant characters, who are often adolescents and their parents, or else just a woman and her significant other/ close friends. From there, the stories consist largely of the characters’ reactions to the Big Event and subsequent littler events that occur as a result, as people cope with their own reactions and misinterpret others’. Internal, emotional conflicts play a large role, as do conflicts between characters. In the end, there’s a resolution that often involves reconciliation.

It’s not a bad pattern, and it is not exactly distinct from a lot of other authors. Truthfully, I am not even sure exactly what bothers me about it. Picoult’s style seems unique to me, and that is something I love about her, so it does not seem fair to condemn her for writing similarly across all her books. Other authors focus on character development over a long course of time, but Picoult distinguishes herself by immediately making the focus of character development not a reaction to Life in general, but rather to a shocking Event that does not fit the status quo. And yet, parallels between Story A, B, and C that emerge in story D bother me for reasons that I do not quite understand.

In the end, however, I will continue reading Picoult books, as I have said. I do respect her enormously though I do have nagging misgivings about her work.