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Jodi Picoult |
Camden books | Review of Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart | Atlantic | 'My Sister's Keeper'
Change Of Heart is published by Hodder and Stoughton £16.99. order this book
JODI Picoult is not quite an overnight sensation – she points out that she has been writing for 15 years – but her fame certainly soared on this side of the Atlantic after My Sister’s Keeper was selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club in 2005.
So it was no surprise that the University College School’s Lund Theatre in Hampstead was filled with a daytime TV audience of yummy mummies and teenage girls when she appeared there for a question and answers session.
But there was also a good spattering of couples, an American family jostling for a better view, and the odd lone man shuffling nervously in his seat. People steadily trickled towards the front of the hall to buy a copy of the new book; others sighed, glancing at their watches.
Then, suddenly, there she was. Necks craned forward, everyone trying to get a better look: could this rosy-cheeked woman with bouncing curls really be the dark mind behind books on our deepest fears? Childhood leukaemia, abduction, sexual abuse, rape and murder: Picoult has covered them all in depth and in detail. After she read from her latest novel, Change Of Heart – set on death row – someone at the back was brave enough to ask why she writes about such disturbing topics.
“Yet another uplifting Jodi Picoult book,” she giggled in reply, saying that she deliberately wrote about the things that ran through her head just before she went to sleep.
It wasn’t a sales pitch, she claims – her books met with some initial resistance because of the subject matter – but the end result is that she writes books that people from all walks of life and all over the world find relevant and thought-provoking.
Despite the mix of people, the audience was united in its adoration of Picoult and her work.
The most poignant moment of the evening came when she was asked about the upcoming film adaptation of My Sister’s Keeper. How does she feel about it? Five minutes of upbeat “amazing actors” puff later, people were nodding, smiling, mentally booking their cinema ticket.
Then she quietly mentioned that, unfortunately, the director wants to change the ending. A collective moan went around – people clutched at their hair, the woman beside me almost chewed her finger off. Everyone was appalled that someone was going to ruin THEIR book.
Picoult couldn’t help but grin – what more could an author hope for? As she took her seat to sign copies of her work, there was a civilised Hampstead stampede towards the stage.
With her 15th book in the shops and at least another two on the way, it seems that as long as there are heart-wrenching dilemmas out there, Picoult will be doing a roaring trade.
Aoife Ní Dhálaigh
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