Jodi Picoult�s latest novel, Change of Heart, is sure to cause debate among its readers. In it, Picoult�s four narrators, who take turns telling the story, grapple with challenging questions that certainly provoke a great deal of thought. Narrator June Nealon asks perhaps the toughest questions: �Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy�s dying wish?� Nealon grapples with this issue throughout the novel as she decides whether or not to accept a heart donation for her critically ill daughter, Claire, from a man named Shay Bourne.
Bourne is a death row inmate who was convicted of murdering June�s husband, Officer Kurt Nealon, and sexually assaulting and then murdering her seven-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, eleven years earlier. June�s hatred of Bourne runs deep. She had trusted him to work in her home as a carpenter, and he betrayed her trust by taking away everything in the world that she held dear. Now she faces losing her only remaining child, and Bourne offers the last hope for Claire�s survival. The catch is that Bourne believes that donating his heart to Claire will salvage his soul. Should June allow Bourne to redeem himself through his death by accepting his heart for Claire? Will June be able to look at her daughter the same way after the transplant? These are tough questions, and the readers must ask themselves what they would do if they were in June�s place.
Picoult�s controversial questioning reaches beyond revenge and forgiveness�she also takes on the death penalty, the existence of God and Catholic dogma through the struggles of her other three narrators: Father Michael, inmate Lucius DuFresne and attorney Maggie Bloom. As Shay Bourne sits on death row, strange events begin to occur in the prison. First, the prison water faucets start flowing with wine. Then, Bourne apparently brings a dead robin back to life. Other seemingly miraculous events soon follow, turning Bourne�s final days before his execution into a media circus. People start to wonder if Bourne is causing the miracles and even if he is the Messiah. Or is something else going on? Lucius is an atheist and convicted murderer in the cell next to Bourne. He becomes convinced that Bourne is a miracle-worker after Lucius� end-stage AIDS suddenly disappears overnight, leaving no trace of HIV in his body.
Father Michael, a Catholic priest at a nearby church, becomes Bourne�s spiritual advisor and must face tough questions about his own personal beliefs. Bourne doesn�t know it, but Michael served on the jury that sentenced him to death. Michael�s guilt over voting for the death penalty is what drove him to enter the priesthood, and he wonders whether he is advising Bourne in order to save Bourne�s soul or to redeem his own. Then, when the illiterate Bourne seemingly starts working miracles and quoting the Gospel of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels, Father Michael begins to question everything he ever believed in. He ponders, �What if the Church forefathers had gotten it wrong? What if the gospels that had been dismissed and debunked were the real ones?� If Michael can accept that Catholic dogma has obscured the true story of Jesus, then Bourne, the 33-year-old carpenter facing execution in a New Hampshire prison, starts to seem eerily like another 33-year-old carpenter executed in Jerusalem 2,000 years earlier. If Bourne really is the Messiah returned, what, then, is the meaning of faith? Or is Bourne really, in the end, able to pull off the biggest con in history?
DisplayAds (’Middle’);Finally, Maggie Bloom is an ACLU attorney who decides to take on Bourne�s case out of her desire to eradicate the death penalty. She is an overweight, atheist daughter of a Jewish rabbi and overbearing mother, and the only thing she has confidence in is her work. However, when she realizes Bourne actually wants to die, she must decide if helping him to die on his own terms is implicating her in the death penalty, which she abhors, or if it is actually helping to protect Bourne�s rights. In order to help Bourne, she must convince the state to execute him by hanging rather than by lethal injection, as the latter damages the heart. Or should she convince Bourne to fight his execution in court one last time? And how should she deal with Bourne�s conviction that donating his heart will help him gain salvation, when she doesn�t even believe that God exists?
All of the dilemmas faced by the four narrators challenge the reader to think about faith, the death penalty and forgiveness in new ways. These are heavy topics, but Picoult�s delightful narrative style keeps the tone of the book light enough so that it remains provocative instead of depressing. The characters speak with such authentically human voices that they seem like real people, and the author has a deft way of injecting humor into her story. Father Michael rides a motorcycle and looks more like a grunge-rocker than a priest. Lucius provides the reader with a darkly comedic account of prison life. Maggie is perhaps the most delightful character, and her clumsy attempts to impress a handsome British doctor are a breath of fresh air. Even bitter and devastated June brings moments of lightness to the story.
In addition, Picoult obviously did a great deal of research before writing the novel, as her characters are capable of discussing Jewish beliefs, Catholic dogma, Gnostic texts, cardiac surgery, prison life, the legal system and methods of execution with an expert�s degree of knowledge. The depth and breadth of the author�s story is quite impressive. However, the reader must be willing to suspend disbelief and accept that miracles are possible or much of Picoult�s plot will seem like a stretch beyond the real and into the fantastic.
Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult, Atria, March 2008
4
Apr
Copyright © 2008 Tour Novel. All Rights Reserved.
Related Articles
No user responded in this post
Leave A Reply
Please Note: Comment moderation maybe active so there is no need to resubmit your comments