Title: Handle with care
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7432-9641-0
Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone
Setting: Bankton, New Hampshire
1st Sentence:
Prologue
Charlotte
February 14, 2002
Things break all the time.
Comments:
A short synopsis from the author's website:
When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.
This is my favorite book read this year! There are some touchy medical ethics involved, some personal moral issues and a strong writing of family dynamics and failed relationships. In addition, the struggle of a family living with OI was written in such a way that I hope it spurs others to educate themselves on this issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment