"My Sister's Keeper"

"My Sister's Keeper"
Jodi Picoult
Washington Square Press, $14





What if you grew up knowing the only reason you were alive was because you were created to save someone else's life?

That is how 13-year-old Anna lives. In "My Sister's Keeper," Jodi Picoult introduces the audience to the Fitzgerald family. Brian, the firefighter and wannabe astronomer, and his wife Sara, the no-longer-practicing lawyer, have three children: Jesse, the rebel whose parents have already given up on him; Kate, the girl who has had luekemia on and off for 14 years; and Anna, who was created when her parents picked the right genes so she could be a one-time donor for Kate.

But when the one time doesn't cure Kate, Anna becomes a donor again. And again. And again.

For 13 years, Anna is used to taking trips to hospitals and being poked and proded because her parents think it is in the best interest of keeping Kate alive. She is hardly asked whether she wants to because she has grown up knowing this role is her life. And how do you tell your parents you don't want to give up your body to save your sister anymore?

Well, when she needs a kidney transplant, you could sue your parents for the medical rights to your body and find a lawyer willing to take on the case pro bono.

Picoult, as usual, tackles a controversial idea in her "My Sister's Keeper," and she does it well. She dances around any political statement about whether it was right for Brian and Sara to conceive Anna to use her to help Kate, about whether Anna is obligated to give up a part of her body to save her sister. Whether it was right isn't what's important — it's how what is happening now has affected the family.

Picoult focuses on the character development by using flashbacks to specific situations that have made the characters who they are at present time. Of course Jesse is going to act out — after Anna was born and Kate was still sick, he lost his role in the family. Of course Sara is going to side with Kate — there is no relationship that is stronger than between a mother and her child, especially when that child needs help. Of course Anna feels like she's not part of the family — her parents pay the most attention to her when they need her to help Kate.

The only problem with the character development, as usual in Picoult's novels, is the side story distracts from the main story. What a coincidence that the lawyer and guardian ad litem had a previous relationship that has affected the way they treat each other now. And hearing about their past was boring. I was eager to get back to Anna and Kate. But as always, the side stories tie into the end of the main story and make reading them worth it.

I also wanted to hear more from Kate's point of view, but Picoult's reason for not telling the story from Kate's perspective was probably because Kate has never had her own voice throughout her life. We hear the most about Kate and how she has dealt with things through her mother because Sara's life has been taken over by taking care of Kate. Choosing to do this shows Picoult's strength as a story teller — she knows her characters so well that she knows who needs to tell which parts of the story to portray it most clearly to the audience.

And once you get to the end of the story, you know what is going to happen, and it ends in the only way that is right for such a story to end.

I don't know how she does it, but each time I read Picoult, I am amazed at the beauty with which all of the elements come together — the plot, the characters, the events, the language. And "My Sister's Keeper" is no exception, and perhaps one of her best.

And one of the best characters in this book is Campbell, the big shot lawyer who volunteers to help Anna's case. Campbell has a service dog, and the reason for his service changes with each time someone asks him why he has the dog:

I think about coming clean, for once, for the first time. But then again, you have to be able to laugh at yourself, don't you? "I'm a lawyer," I say, and I grin at her. "He chases ambulances for me." (408)

And Campbell's admittance of being able to laugh at yourself, to smile at what you have, is a reminder for all of us when we get to the end of the story, that we can smile at what we have.

And this admittance comes in full circle to Anna's admittance on the first page of the book:

When I was little, the great mystery to me wasn't how babies were made, but why.

Anna's story shows us that maybe the reason we're all here is to make life better for others — whether that means making crappy lawyer jokes or giving parts of your body to your sister in hopes that she will continue breathing for one more day.