With her penetrating insight into the hearts and minds of real people, Jodi Picoult's 'My Sister's Keeper' examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person, and what happens when emotions meet with scientific advances.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned . . . until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable . . . a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
Told from multiple points of view, 'My Sister's Keeper' examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life . . . even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? What happens when emotion catches up to scientific advances?
Do we really decide our fate?
Does a child have the right to decide for themselves? We get an insight into this question from every character that is involved. Their anger, fear and reasoning are laid bare to the reader forcing you to think about it and find your own opinion. Just when you think that you are at peace with your choice on this matter, Picoult rips the carpet from underneath you and begs you to reconsider. What an amazing book, the end of the story is definitely not the end of the journey.
Joret, 13/12/2008
My Sisters Keeper
This book is about a family who's eldest daughter is dianosed with cancer from an early age. Her younger sister is scientifically conceived to be a "match" in order for the eldest daughter to survive. With the family constantly in and out of hospital, now 16 years on the youngest daughter no longer wants to donate her body to her sister and takes on sueing her parents. This books looks at this case from every member of the family and makes you as the reader sympathise and udnerstand everyone's feelings. What makes it harder is that they all seem to "have a point". Shocking is the subject of the book, but even more shocking is its ending.
Catherine, 11/12/2008
