Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult

I've had this book on my shelf for a while and I was really looking forward to reading it. After enjoying The Tenth Circle so much I really wanted to get my teeth into this one. The blurb on the back sounded too intriguing to resist. But I was a little disappointed I have to admit. But that doesn't mean it was bad... I just didn't think it was as good as the others I've read.

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The story follows the lives of four characters; Delia, Eric, Fitz, Andrew and Elsie. Delia and her father Andrew have lived in the state of New Hampshire ever since Delia was 4 (I think, or there abouts) and has only ever been the two of them since Delia's mother Elise, died in a car crash. She grew up with the lads next door on both sides, Fritz and Eric, and the three of them have a seemingly endless friendship and closeness. Eric and Delia are engaged and have a daughter, Sophie. However, one evening Delia discovers that the mother she thought was dead is not actually dead at all, but instead living a live in Arizona. As it turns out her father kidnapped her, changed their names and lived a life of lies. Andrew is hauled off to trial in Arizona and Delia coerces her Fiance Eric, into acting as his lawyer because she trusts him and he knows them both. Fritz also tags along because the paper he works for wants in to write regular and in depth articles on the proceedings.

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Eric's mother was an alcoholic, as is Eric... as, it turns out, was/is Delia's mother - hence the reason we are led to believe Andrew spirited Delia (real name Bethany) away from the incapable care of her mother. However, during the trial when the prosecution goads Andrew into a rage of fury, he suddenly and shockingly reveals that the reason he took Delia away from her mother was because her then boyfriend, who is now her husband, was sexually abusing Delia. Knowing back then that the courts would never believe him without proof or grant him full custody, especially with a prior conviction however minor, he takes her away to begin a new life.

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So it sounds like a pretty good story huh? And it should be. But it just wasn't for me and I can't put my finger on why. When Picoult writes she throws up these really interesting questions that you have to stop and consider, and ask yourself. But in this case I just felt like she was asking questions for questions sake - they were relevant... but they were questions that you knew the answers too, or that were too easy to answer. There's this whole native Indian/Hopi sub-plot going on too and I couldn't figure out why it was relevant the main story or what it was supposed to help highlight and bring to the fore. I suppose it was something to do with knowing who you are rather that what you were or something like that but I know I didn't completely get it.

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With regards the whole Eric/Delia/Fritz triangle this is also complicated. They both love Delia and she loves them - all in different ways, but still love none-the-less. The reason Delia and Eric have not married yet is because Eric is still dealing with his drink demons. Delia sleeps with Fritz during the story and they discover they should be together. Eric is okay with this... but then he knows somehow that him and Delia will get back together. The idea being that all three of them are interchangeable. So basically it's a giant witches cauldron full of love, toil, trouble, betrayal and trust. Simply add a pinch of understanding, and stir...

The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult

The Tenth Circle is the second novel of Picoult’s that I have read, the other being Keeping Faith which I read back in March. I remember thinking how engaging a book that had been and how Picoult had managed to draw you deep into the characters so that you somehow managed to see a part of yourself in each of them.
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The Tenth Circle is nothing short of brilliantly captivating. It took me four days to read it – no mean feat since I work full time and did two 12-hour days this week. I just couldn’t put it down. Picoult’s writing is just so (and I don’t mean to sound snobbish here) intelligent and fantastically constructed and the way she gives her characters so much depth you can’t help but feel their pain or happiness as deeply as they do.
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The story follows the Stone family whose lives are torn apart one night when 14-year old Trixie is raped at a party by her ex-boyfriend and the subsequent effect on those around her. Her father Daniel has always been her main caretaker as he has been the ‘stay at home dad’, fitting his work of writing comics around her schedule. Picoult has cleverly managed to paint her father as some kind of superhero who will do anything it takes to protect his daughter from the world. This is further demonstrated by Picoult’s descriptions of Daniel’s ‘wild’ past which, cleverly juxtapositioned between his current ‘normal’ persona, serve to highlight the two sides that probably every person who loves someone else has – the side to love and nurture and the other to protect, no matter what price that amounts to. To this end, at the conclusion of each chapter is a short comic strip which illustrates Daniel’s quest to save his daughter, written along the lines of travelling through the nine levels of Hell as described in Dante’s Inferno – a epic poem on which his wife Laura is something of an authority.
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Jodi Picoult throws up so many questions during this book that on occasion it reads like Carrie Bradshaw’s narrative in Sex in the City. However, her questions and points are so relevant and thought-provoking that before you know it your mind is whirring away trying figure out the answer – sometimes to which, there isn’t one. Questions such as why you have to physically say “no” to sex for it to be considered rape when we never actually say “yes” either. Why isn’t the body language of saying no just as important as when the body language says yes? How dressing someone can be much more intimate than unravelling them. How you can be married to someone for so long and both know and not know them. How, when two people are changing so rapidly whilst they each fight off their demons, the two of them remain the only constant and can still recognise each other afterwards.
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There is no doubt that Picoult has done her research. The use of the Alaskan environment and its people serves to highlight that sometimes words are not needed and that volumes can be spoken within a silence, especially in a landscape where breath is instantly frozen on the air. I liked the way this was highlighted through the character of Willie near the end of the story and his relationship with Trixie. Sometimes you have to listen to silence before you can find it within yourself to speak the truth and how sometimes you don’t need to speak at all to say what needs to be said.
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I could go on forever about how good this book is but I don’t think I could ever do it justice. It is clever and sharp and brilliantly written. Picoult has the most amazing way of bringing you deep into the characters so that they become a part of you. The way she shows how difficult it is to be a parent, or a family, or someone who loves someone else, or anyone who has something to lose by turning a blind eye. How even superheroes have the flaws of humans, but at the same time this is what makes them superheroes in the first place. It's a lucky girl who ever had a dad like Daniel.