Handle with Care: A Novel
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: Reprint
- Author: Jodi Picoult
- Publisher: Washington Square Press
- Release Date: September 2009
- ISBN-10: 0743296427
- ISBN-13: 9780743296427
- List Price: $16.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryThings break all the time. Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health. Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life? Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Always love Picoult, but not my favorite book of hers
Rating:
This was a captivating book, written in Picoult's signature style. I learned a great deal about Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and was able to get a glimpse of what life is like for people with this condition. It was something I had never even heard of before, so it was good to become educated about it and feel a profound appreciation for the things we take for granted daily, like being able to go running and wrestling and dancing without worrying about breaking bones. Some plot lines were resolved a bit hastily, but overall it was a quick read that keeps you hooked. Picoult is a master at that skill. I must say that I was not crazy about the ending, but overall I enjoyed it and could not put it down.
Thought-provoking yet troubling
Rating:
Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. I appreciate the detail she uses in her writing and the interesting twists in the story lines. 'Handle With Care' does not stray from this formula and offers an engaging story that kept me turning the pages.
One of the problems I had with this book is that it is a bit too long. I'm not sure the recipes really added anything to my reading enjoyment and the story lines got a bit "busy" considering all that was going on with Amelia and Marin as well as the main characters.
But 'Handle With Care' is also thought-provoking in that its central theme is that of whether or not a woman would terminate a pregnancy when she learns the baby will be severely disabled, and if not, could she really go ahead with a wrongful birth trial. It's troubling and yet timely in that as technology improves, more women will face this dilemma. I wrestled the whole theme around in my head for hours as I read the book and after I put it down.
SPOILER ALERT - Do not read any further if you don't want to know the ending!
But, as engaging as the book was, I have some serious issues that reduced it to a three-star rating! In real life, I don't think Charlotte would have won this case. There simply was not enough evidence that Piper was negligent and at 18 weeks, with no prior disposition to OI, I don't think any regular OB/GYN would have suspected this to be a problem.
Second, while an eight million dollar award is within the realm of possibility, the family would not have received a check so quickly (there would certainly have been an appeal), and they would not have gotten the entire amount as the law firm would have taken their piece of the pie. They put the check on the fridge? Come on now!
In my opinion, however, the ending, was a sublime example of tragic irony - they win, but ultimately they lose. I had a feeling this would be the ending, though, because of the style in which the book was written. Why were they all writing to Willow, I wondered, if she were still alive?
I wanted to like this book, but the problem I had with the central theme made it difficult. However, I haven't given up on JP and will continue to read her novels as they are published.
depressing and disappointing
Rating:
This is my first Picoult book, and may be my last. Half-way through I did what I almost never do...flipped to the back. I just didn't care enough to keep reading the whole thing, and after reading the last few pages, I'm really grateful I decided to quit. I would have been even more furious had I read the whole thing. It seems like one, long, pointless story, which was entirely too self-indulgent, had too many points of view, too many issues, was too unbelievable and was far too contrived. And as previously stated, Kitty Litter is not capitalized.
Terrible.
Rating:
I had a feeling I wasn't going to like this one too much. The end was sickening -after poor misguided Charlotte ruins everybody's life, the sick twist. It WAS a rewrite of My Sister's Keeper. The only likable character was Willow. Can't we ever have a happy or at least hopeful ending? Don't waste your time.
Been done before
Rating:
This book reads so much like some of her others, most notably "My Sister's Keeper", that it never engaged me. Some of the characters weren't very likable and there were holes aplenty in the story. One thing that bothered me is that it seemed to be promoting a prolife position, with the parents continually going on and on about how they couldn't be without Willow. Of course Willow is impossibly precocious and winsome. The terrible toll of misery that fell upon Willow,her whole family and their friends as a result of Willow's birth needs to be considered. It could be seen as pretty short-sighted and downright unkind to deliberately bring into the world someone whose whole life will be pain, needles, hospitals and very limited possibilities. As a nurse, I've seen very clearly that there are worse things than not being born.
Also it was hard to believe that everyone had such a hard time realizing that the lawsuit was just a maneuver to get money for Willow's care and not a personal attack against either Willow or Piper. Lawsuits like this happen. I think any OB would realize this. I even know one OB who agreed with his patient's suit against him for just this reason. It made no sense that Piper quit her profession entirely because of the suit. All in all, this was far from the author's best book.
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