CHANGE OF HEART by Jodi Picoult
Nobody knows how to hold a reader’s interest better than Jodi Picoult. Her books grab you after the first few paragraphs and hang on for the duration. This is especially true of her newest novel CHANGE OF HEART. You literally won’t be able to put it down until you have completed this strange story of faith, murder and atonement.
Shay Bourne is the central focus of the story. He is on death row awaiting his fate. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of June Nealon’s husband and daughter. She had hired him to do some repair work at her home and then had to learn he had killed both her husband and her daughter. At the time of the murders she was pregnant with her second child, a girl named Claire.
The book is told from different viewpoints. We get June’s as well as Lucius, Maggie and Michael’s stories. Lucius is the man in the cell next to Shay’s. He is suffering from AIDs and is someone who benefits from Shay’s more miraculous moments. Then there is Father Michael who is Shay’s spiritual advisor. Michael has a secret regarding his relationship to Shay and he wants to keep it hidden.
Finally there is Maggie, Shay’s ACLU lawyer. Maggie doesn’t believe in the death penalty and she wants to use Shay’s death to make a point. But Maggie is drawn into Shay’s story and finds a “change of heart” like so many others.
The title basically comes from Shay’s request to be hanged instead of being injected with a death serum. If he is hanged he can donate his heart to Claire who is badly in need of a new one. Shay feels in this way his death will have some purpose. It is not that easy however to convince the courts that he should have his method of death changed. It involves a lot of legal action and some wise judicious inquiries.
Picoult approaches some gray areas of faith and religion in this book. Shay is such a complex character and has such strange abilities that some might call him messianic. At least some people in the book think he is Jesus come back to earth. In some instances Picoult just lets the reader make up his/her mind as to how some miraculous events play out; but in other instances, such as the ending, she takes it too far.
This is a strange story but an engrossing one. Picoult is no stranger to controversy and in this book she seems to be courting it. That is a valid premise if you are trying to stimulate discussion and thought which Picoult obviously is trying to do. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and not pondering its implications for days to come.
Every Jodi Picoult novel is an event. CHANGE OF HEART is that and more. It is a book to be read, studied and pondered. If that isn’t what good literature is all about, what is?
CHANGE OF HEART is published by Atria Books. It contains 447 pages and sells for $26.95.