SING YOU HOME by Jodi Picoult

I've completely lost count as to what number book this is for me....I was trying to keep track, but since I use this blog for more than the books I read, I can't keep going back to look every time I want to post something new.  Oh well.  It's my issue.  I'll learn to deal!

Jodi Picoult has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read her book The Pact several years ago.  It definitely is a book worth reading.  I had a problem with the ending of the book, though, so, since Jodi Picoult is still alive and has an email, I emailed her and asked her why she ended the book the way she did since it was obviously the wrong ending.  (I was much nicer in my email, I promise you!)  Within 24 hours, this published author wrote me back!!!!!  I was so excited to see her name in my email in-box that my heart literally fluttered in my chest and I had a hard time catching my breath as I opened the email.  She was very gracious and admitted that the ending of The Pact is her only writing regret; she had ended the book as she'd expected her audience wanted rather than the way it should have.  Of course, it was a lesson learned and she has devoted herself to writing the way her characters truly are and not what she, the actual writer of the words, feels the story should go.

I so greatly admire that, especially her honesty!  Not to mention the fact that a published author wrote to ME!!!!!  And she does answer her own emails!  She does NOT have an assistant!  Call me naive; I don't care.  I believe her!

I've gone on to read many of her books--not all, especially not her early ones, but definitely all of them in the past 5 years.  My favorite Jodi Picoult book is My Sister's Keeper.  If you saw the movie, you truly missed out on what made the book worthy of being made into a movie.  The ending is a real surprise rather than the expected ending of the movie and the movie ending is definitely a disappointment.  Of course, I don't like the ending of the book, either, but that's because I didn't WANT that to happen, but it's the "right" ending....the movie ending isn't.

Yeah, I'm leaving it at that!  I hope you all go out and get a copy of the book and READ IT!!!!

Anyway, Sing You Home is Jodi Picoult's book that came out earlier this month--I got it within two days of its release!  I would have had it sooner, but the day I was going to get it, my battery died on me, making me late to go pick up Samuel!

Anyway, this particular book will always hold a special place in my heart because in the very first chapter, Max and Zoe suffer a stillbirth; they lost their sweet Daniel at 28 weeks while I lost my precious James Isaac at full term, 38 weeks.  Like me, they had also been through 2 miscarriages, as well.  I felt as if Jodi was telling MY story.  Of course, I didn't go through IVF to get pregnant any of the times I was ever pregnant, but any story of child loss creates a connection that only those who have been through it TRULY understand.  I was devastated for Max and Zoe and I knew that if their marriage survived, it would be a continuous uphill battle.  I've dealt with that part myself, as well.

But Max doesn't want to continue watching Zoe go through everything she has to go through in order to just get pregnant, so when she says she's ready to start the treatments again, he ends the marriage.  It is expected, but still sad.  Both deal with not only the loss of their child but also the loss of their marriage in tragic ways and suffer greatly.

It isn't too long when Zoe is pulled out of a pool (is she trying to drown herself or not?  you read it and see what you think) by a casual acquaintance, Vanessa.  The two women quickly become the best of friends and, yes, they're soon lovers.  They get married and decide to have a baby....one of the embryos still frozen from Zoe's last IVF treatment cycle.  This is where the "fun" begins.

From there, the story truly become a 3-ring circus.  I'd like to say that not all Christians are the way Christians are portrayed in Sing You Home.  Granted, I have to admit that Jodi is portraying Christians in the stereotypical light that they (I should say we) have become.  It's so very sad.  But again, not every Christian is a hypocrite to the degree that the Christians in this story are portrayed.  Of course, the worst is the lawyer who claims to be a believer, yet who obviously wants this case for what it can do for his career and to make him more visible in the public eye.  I truly am disgusted by Wade Preston and wanted him punched in the face by SOMEONE!!!  He never asks for what Max wants or really cares about Max.  (In case I forgot to say it, Wade Preston is Max's laywer.)  By the time the lawsuit is filed, it's completely out of Max's hands.  He honestly doesn't even have a choice in the matter of whether or not it continues.  It's so disgusting.

Liddy, Max's sister-in-law, is my favorite character in the story and, I think, the most misunderstood.  She is seen/portrayed as the "perfect" Christian.  The woman who has waited for marriage to have sex.  The woman who has been a Christian all of her life.  The woman who prays all the time.  The woman who has a "perfect" life with a "perfect" rich husband.  But yet, Liddy, like Zoe, has several miscarriages (5 if I am remembering correctly) and is having fertility problems as well.  All Liddy wants, like Zoe, is to be a Mom.  Yet, Zoe hates Liddy and everything Liddy stands for.  At one point in the story, Zoe refuses to have anything to Liddy because, as Zoe says, they have nothing in common.

I was so saddened to see that what Zoe was craving from others--acceptance for who she is and what she wants in life, she is unwilling, unable to give to Liddy.  Rather than embracing Liddy as "sisters who have shared grief in child loss," Zoe lashes out at Liddy and completely makes the Liddy the "bad guy."

Yet, Liddy, like Zoe, is just trying to do her best in this crazy, mixed-up world and to be the best person she can be.  She has sins in her life, just as she says Zoe does--of course, Zoe's sin is for the anyone to see who's willing to see (according to Liddy's beliefs as a Christian, now--keep that in mind)--that she's gay and in a gay marriage--while Liddy's sin is secret and locked behind a hurting, very scared heart.  (If you want to know Liddy's sin, you just have to read the book!)  Zoe is brave enough to follow through with what she wants and what she wants is Vanessa.  Liddy hides and pretends that all is well in her world, yet everything she's ever known, loved, or believed in is crashing down around her.

I love both Liddy and Zoe in this story.  I desperately wanted Zoe and Liddy to be friends.  I could see even early on that these two women could be soul mates...if only Liddy could love Zoe unconditionally and if only Zoe could see that Christians aren't perfect!!!!

The trial between Max and Zoe for the embryos is the main focus of the book and takes up more than half of the book overall--at least 200 pages +.  But to me, the REAL story is between Liddy and Zoe.  I hungrily ate up the pages, looking and hoping at any moment for these two women to fall into each others' arms--not as lesbian lovers--but as women who have shared more than either one realizes because each is so wrapped up in her own world--of hurts, pain, and suffering.

Yes, Sing You Home has as a central focus the theme of homosexuality.  Yes, it's an issue that is dealt with and covered in more ways than I thought possible.  I'm not sure that there's a real answer to the problem of lack of tolerance for gays and lesbians, but this story certainly shares both sides of the story in a way that gets the reader thinking--in good, and hopefully, very productive ways.

But the homosexuality issue/theme is, to me, more in the background of the story.  This is a story about finding the one thing that every single human being craves with every fiber of our being....love and acceptance for who we are where we are in any given moment of time.

Sing You Home is beautifully written and an absolute must-read.  You will probably focus on details and issues different from mine, but that's just awesome!  I know that I focused on Liddy and Zoe because both women have been through similar experiences to what I have been through.  As a result, I wanted throughout the book for all 3 of us to be the very best of friends.  As far as I'm concerned, I was successful in achieving that goal.......