Saturday, March 21, 2009

March #5 - HANDLE WITH CARE


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.

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