Handle With Care thoughful response

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult is a book that centers around the O’Keefe family: mum, Charlotte,
and her second husband, Sean, stepfather of Amelia, the older daughter, and Willow, the youngest daughter
with osteogenesis imperfecta (aka brittle bone disease). This means that even walking could cause hairline
fractures, and Willow had broken over a hundred bones at the age of six. As the medical bills were crippling
the family, another break in Disney World led to the idea of suing charlotte’s obstetrician for wrongful birth.
The catch is, her obstetrician, Piper, was Charlotte’s best friend. As charlotte went for the lawsuit, her
husband Sean opposed it and went as far as testifying for the defense. One thing led to another, and soon
they were filing a divorce, although they reunited eventually. On the other hand, in neglect, Amelia suffered
from bulimia and self-harm. In the end, Charlotte won the lawsuit and got an eight-million-dollar payout.
But the tragedy was that Willow drowned in a pond accident and died in the end.
Jodi Picoult had always been very good at dealing with controversial moral dilemmas, including this
one. Charlotte, filing the wrongful birth lawsuit, had to tell the world that she wished her beloved daughter
had never been born. Being a dynamic character, her train of emotions and changing views were well
described and well developed. There’s one flaw, which is that Charlotte could be very selfish at times and
was not “likable” by readers. Also, Willow was depicted as a mature child genius, maybe a bit too mature as
a six-year-old, and was not a believable character. In the whole book, there was only one character that I
really liked – Amelia. Her personality was very well developed and, as the story was told in perspectives of
different characters, I found myself anticipating for Amelia’s part. This is perhaps because her actions and
emotions really resonated with me. I felt sorry for her situation of being neglected and suffering from
bulimia. Her engagement in self-mutilation really related to me and I felt her pain.
I found the style and basic scenario of Handle With Care very similar to My sister’s Keeper. Both
stories were told in the perspectives of different characters, and in the last chapter, the voice of the “conflict”
person – Willow, in Handle With Care, and Kate, in My sister’s Keeper. Both stories were “lawsuit stories”,
with two sisters in which one had a rare disease and another suffered collaterally. Comparing the two novels,
I think Picoult did a better job at developing the story in My Sister’s Keeper. It was overall a much more
believable story.
In my opinion, the ending was too hasty and tacky. Willow’s bizarre pond accident was not relevant to
the story, except for the ironic fact that it was the ice that broke, not her bone. Also, it was described in one
single chapter, followed by a short epilogue. I could see that Picoult was trying to give the reader a surprise,
but, apart from that the ending was fairly predictable, it was not suitable and I do not know the purpose of it.
Was it supposed to be a tragic irony? To me it just seemed to have ended in such a hurry that I couldn’t but
thought the writer had reached her “word limit” and had to finish it in one chapter. The ending was a bit of a
disappointment and it really affected what I thought of the book.
Despite the hasty ending, I really liked Picoult’s distinct style and her poetic descriptions. I have
always liked the way Picoult writes her stories with a sentimental and surreal taste in the narration. The
recipes between chapters were a sweet touch considering Charlotte was a pastry chef. It also seemed like
Charlotte was telling her daughter about her feelings through the recipes, and the recipes somehow
foreshadowed the chapter afterwards as the story developed.
Overall, the book was well written with fairly interesting plot, despite the hurried ending. The
characters were in depth although some were a bit unbelievable and not likeable. I enjoyed reading this book
as I have always reading Picoult’s books, although I was expecting a bit more from this book.