Not My Favorite Piccoult

Keeping Faith by Jodi Piccoult

Adult Fiction

This was not my favorite Piccoult.  It was quite religious in nature and, at times, made me uncomfortable.  I think to really enjoy this book you should probably be a Christian but I can also see how many parts could be offensive to some traditional Christians.

And, this is exactly why Piccoult is such a great author!  She takes uncomfortable topics and makes them more uncomfortable and makes you really think about it.  Not an author to take to the beach!

Mariah is a very weak and dependent wife and mother who discovers her husband is having an affair-again.  So, she emotionally abandons her young daughter-again.  This time, though, her husband doesn't want her back and Mariah is catatonic.  Around this time, Mariah's eight-year old daughter Faith starts having visions of God.  At first, everyone thinks this is just a grab for attention until Faith starts showing signs of stigmata.  Doctors get involved to disprove the stigmata, but can't.  It appears to  be real, which makes her a media darling.  Then, she brings her own grandmother back from the dead gets the attention of TV journalist and atheist Ian Fletcher.  Is any of this real or is Mariah hurting her own daughter just to get the attentions of her husband? 

It is only with the introduction of Fletcher that I actually started to like this book, not that Fletcher is a likable character.  He isn't but Mariah was so loathsome to me as a wife and mother that it was a relief to have someone else to root for.  The romance that springs up between the two of them was realistic and that seemed to be the only thing that caused Mariah to come out of her cardboard spell and start acting like a real woman. 

It was an unlikeable book with unlikeable characters but one that will definitely make you think--and that's the only thing that saved it for me.