"The Tenth Circle"

"The Tenth Circle"
Jodi Picoult
Washington Square Press, $15





As usual, Jodi Picoult does not steer away from controversial, sensitive topics in "The Tenth Circle," with topics such as rape, self destruction, lying, cheating and death gracing the 387 pages of her thirteenth novel.

Trixie Stone is 14 and heartbroken. Stay-at-home Dad Daniel knows something is different about his daughter, but he is hardly willing to accept that she is growing up and growing away from him. And he knows something is different about his wife Laura, who we meet in the middle of an extra marital affair in the opening pages of the story.

So like any teenager who is sad about her first love, Trixie wants to get him back and tries to do so by making him jealous. The boy ends up raping her — so Trixie says. How could she have known that he would only want her back for one night instead of back for good, even after she dressed up and flirted and did everything she thought was right in high school relationships.

Picoult fabulously paints the picture of a family who is hurting — the way their individual situations have affected them and the way it has affected their relationships with each other. I found myself being able to relate to each of them, recalling times when I had felt broken or had loved someone who felt broken and how that changed the dynamics of our relationship and how it felt to try to fix it.

Picoult's idea of the rape that might not have been a rape is fascinating. What other crime is there in our society that has physical evidence that could mean nothing but could mean everything, that is dependent on the interpretation of actions, words, the looks on the faces of the plantiff and defendant. Nothing could have worked better into her story because it reinforces the idea that the truth is in the eye of the beholder and changes every time a story is told, especially if the one who is holding the secret isn't sure if she is lying to herself.

Although I have criticized her in the past for spending too much time talking about the side stories, I found myself wanting more this time around. We learn about Trixie's best friend Zephyr, but her story tapers off in the end. We hear part of the Stone family's story from the detective Mike Bartholemew, who has his own depressing tale of losing his daughter, but we don't know if he finds any answers or gets any resolve through Trixie's story. Seth, the object of Laura's forbidden affection, might have played one of the most important roles in the novel, but he disappears as if he didn't matter — which, to the family, he didn't. And Willie, who offers Trixie help when she gets to her lowest, is only in the story long enough to help bring her back up.

Picoult says "The Tenth Circle" is not a departure from her usual, but I would disagree. Her other novels end when the story ends, but this one stops at the end of a story within the larger story. The Stone family makes their way to hell and back, but the demons are still there when they return home, and the reader will never know how they make it out of that fight.

But this had to be a departure from Picoult's usual. It was the first time I haven't cried when I get to the ending. This story wasn't my favorite, but it is one that I will remember.