The Bookish Book
The Bookish Synopsis
Charlotte O'Keefe's much-longed-for, adored daughter, Willow is born with osteogenesis imperfecta - a very severe form of brittle bone disease. One stumble could force her to spend months in a body cast.
Willow's condition is an expensive one, and her family faces financial ruin. Then Charlotte is offered a lifeline. She would file a 'wrongful birth' suit against her obstetrician, in the hope of receiving a monetary payout which would secure Willow's future.
But the doctor she would be suing is Charlotte's best friend. And it also means saying that if she had known in advance about the disability, Charlotte would have terminated the pregnancy - standing up in court to declare she would rather her daughter had never been born...
My Bookish Idea
I had delved into Handle With Care with a certain amount of expectation. After all, this is Jodi Picoult we're talking about. She learnt how to handle a gun for Nineteen Minutes and she visited a prisoner on the death row for Change of Heart among other things she did for her books. When an author puts this much effort into writing her books, you just learn to have high expectations for such books.
What I didn't expect was that Handle With Care managed to move me with such profound intensity. As always, I am made to think, to question my beliefs and ultimately become a person who had "experienced" something more. Although Handle With Care is fiction (as in the characters and plot), it's made to be so realistic that I sincerely feel for each and every single one of its characters. Everyone from Willow, Amelia, Charlotte and Sean to Piper, Marin and Rob.
I have always loved Picoult's style of writing and it is no different with Handle With Care. It is a form of art, the way she phrases a sentence, describes something, moves the plot. People usually get bored when there are lots of medical terminology and legal jargons but with Picoult, you can be rest assured that that won't be the case. One can't help but just admire the amount of effort and love that has obviously been put into Handle With Care.
To be frank, it is quite difficult for me to sum up this wonderful journey with Handle With Care. I sincerely believe that you should pick up the book and go through it yourself especially if you've never read a Jodi Picoult book in your entire life.
Now I'm just going to go off and try to get over my depression over Handle With Care's sombre ending.
The Bookish Rating
10/10
"That a scallop has thirty-five eyes, all blue. That a tuna will suffocate if it ever stops swimming. That I was loved. That this time, it was not me who broke. - Willow O'Keefe"
Labels: Jodi Picoult |
