May 21st, 2009 at 06:32am
I have read all of Jodi Piccult's books, and I agree with what you have to say. I'm a fan of the way she chooses to read, I feel she is one of the few authors who can actually pull something like that off. However, with "Nineteeen Minutes", like you said, the writing style just didn't impress me. Her other books are fantastic, though.
Kudos for writing about her, and for reading her books! It was well written and didn't give too much away.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that Alex Cormier's scene distracted from the book for me. Rather I think they were a good example of how you cannot stop life continuing after such an event. You can ignore people, you can go and hide, but you can't take away your feelings. While Detective Ducharme's relationship with Alex Cormier was rather cliche and it annoyed me that she - a strong woman - had to go and fall in [i]love[/i] I think that's more my cynical attitude than a valid criticism of the book.
Josie Cormier...oh yes, she was a cliche. But then, in our ways, we're all cliches. And if what I've heard about American high/middle school is true then maybe it's not so surprising that she woke up to how much more "beneficial" the popular group would be for her. I was pleased she went to jail - if the book was a true cliche then she would have been magically let off and I would probably have thrown my copy in the trash can.
I agree Piccoult has better works out there, and [i]My Sister's Keeper[/i] is one of them. However the ending of that book crushed me. A brilliant author, completely ducking out of a choice. One of the reasons I love Piccoult is that she goes up against these sensitive topics and isn't afraid. That was one of the few things I liked about Josie - she wasn't a complete stereotype, we saw that she had a brain.
But [i]My Sister's Keeper[/i]'s ending made me so frustrated, it was complete cowardice and a way to "make everyone happy". Piccoult has several black marks against her name in my book, that is undoubtedly the biggest.