"Keeping Faith"

"Keeping Faith"
Jodi Picoult
Harper Perennial, $13.95





Jodi Picoult says when she was doing research for this book, many people wouldn't talk to her, would push her away without answering her questions. It's no surprise, considering one of the book's characters talks with God, experiences stigmata and heals the hurt and sick — even resurrects someone from the dead.

And that character is a 7-year-old girl, born of a Jew into a mixed family who decided against teaching any sort of religion because the parents couldn't even figure out what they wanted to be.

So if the idea that a Jewish girl without any religious background speaks to God and performs miracles is offensive, you probably shouldn't pick up this book. Oh yeah, and God is a She.

Mariah catches husband Colin having an affair, and Faith is standing there to witness her parents fight and fall out. They get divorced.

Faith begins talking about someone whom her mom assumes is an imaginary friend, but after taking her to a psychologist, Faith is seen as psychologically balanced and Mom shouldn't worry. Until Faith starts performing miracles.

Then droves of the believers and nonbelievers fill the front yard and street of Mariah and Faith's home. Faith is pulled out of school, and Mariah does whatever she can to ensure that Faith lives a normal life — whatever that is.

During their journey to attempted normalcy, Mariah is harrassed by Ian Fletcher, the anti-Billy Graham teleathiest, whose life goal is to disprove all supposed miracles from God by giving scientific explanations. But he's not sure if he can disprove Faith.

Colin tires of the fact that his daughter has become the center of all media attention and decides he wants custody. Mariah and Colin and their lawyers battle while Faith just tries to keep on being Faith, although the definition of what she is seems to have changed since she first started talking to God.

"Keeping Faith" is the perfect name for this book. What most people will think of when they hear the phrase "keeping faith" has the strong religious connotations, which obviously tie into the inexplicable miracles laced throughout the novel. And "keeping Faith" is all Mariah is trying to do the entire book. Keeping Faith normal, keeping Faith happy, keeping Faith safe, keeping Faith home.

Picoult, as usual, thoroughly develops every character. However, she might have overdone it in this book. It is difficult to tell which plot and which characters are supposed to be dominant. Faith seems to be the obvious, but then there is Mariah and the way she grows psychologically and emotionally, and Ian Fletcher, who begins to question his atheistic beliefs after not being able to figure out Faith.

After so much build up throughout the book, the climax levels out, and the story ends. But so many questions are still unanswered. Perhaps Picoult is allowing the reader to fill in the blanks and figure out what happens next. There isn't really anything left for her to say at the end of the book, but I don't get the feeling that it ended. I didn't get any closure from the ending, and I want to know what happens next.

I guess that's a strength of Picoult's — to keep the readers wanting more, long after they have put down her books. People can continue questioning what happened and what will happen to these characters after this particularly conflict has passed through their lives.

Whether Faith is actually seeing God and performing Her miracles are secondary in this story. The most important thing Picoult addresses in this book is believing in something or someone, in what will make you happy and comfortable. That was all the characters in this book needed, and God was able to give them that through faith. And Faith.