Review #9: MY SISTER'S KEEPER



Picoult, Jodi.  My Sister's Keeper.  New York:  Simon & Schuester, 2004.  Print.

Annotation: 

 "...I was born for a very specific purpose...they chose little embryonic me, specifically, because I could save my sister, Kate."

     A perfect sibling match, Anna was created for and has spent her entire life undergoing medical procedures to save her sister, who has leukemia.  At thirteen years of age, Anna has had enough.  Now her parents are expecting her to give Kate a kidney.  Tired of living only to ensure the continued existence of her sister, Anna is redefining her role in life and has decided the only way to change things is to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.


Justification for Nomination: 

     My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, is a novel about adults and young adults drowning together in a tumultuous sea of disease and dysfunction, where everyone in Anna’s family is trying to hold on to whatever they can grasp to stay afloat.  Although My Sister’s Keeper is not based on a true story, Picoult effectively manages to tell a story of such verisimilitude that the reader is swept into the current of this family’s chaos. Everyone is weary, especially Anna, who has decided to usurp her parent’s authority in the name of independence and responsibility.  Clearly, her parents cannot see beyond Kate’s disease to see everyone’s misguided coping strategies.  In an effort to restore order and redefine her role as an individual capable of other things besides saving her sister’s life, Anna sets out to free her family from the controversial, moral dilemma that is keeping her sister alive but destroying the whole family.

     Chapter by chapter, the reader is privy to the thoughts and perspectives of each character, each speaking directly to the reading audience. This use of first-person narrative from multiple characters allows the reader to connect with them.  The characters’ interactions and dialogue with each other grant further insights.  As the story builds progressively, there are moments of intense anxiety, moments of rest, happy moments, and sad moments throughout the novel.  Everyone is suffering.  Brian and Sara, aka Dad and Mom, find identities that allow them to escape the questions this moral dilemma raises in their minds:  Brian loses himself in work, Sara in romantic notions of evening gowns she will not wear to parties she will not attend. Victims of their parents’ inability to come to terms with their trial, each of the three teenagers has also assumed a role.  Anna’s brother, Jesse, refers to himself as the Lost Cause, to Kate as the Martyr, and to Anna as the Peacemaker.  However, Anna’s role is changing.  Her newly found courage to step up and sever the constraints of her childhood resonates with the young reader.  In fact, all of the characters’ efforts to grapple with family, relationships, and identity resonate with the teen experience, making My Sister’s Keeper an adult novel that will capture the interest of many young adult readers, especially those who are part of a family where there are trying circumstances and dysfunction with which to cope. All in all, My Sister’s Keeper is definitely a book that is worthy of being called a work of outstanding literary excellence.

Genres:  ALEX Award Winner, Adult, Coming of  Age, Realistic/"Edgy"/Problem