OK, so I just got this book last week, but it was so good, I couldn't put it down. It was a very gripping story! When the story begins, Sara and Brian have the perfect family -- a four year old boy, Jesse, and a two year old girl, Kate. They feel like their family is complete. Then, Kate is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, and she is not expected to live very long.
To improve Kate's chances of survival, Sara and Brian decide to have another child. They fertilize several eggs in vitro, and then they select the one that is a perfect match for Kate. When Anna is born, they harvest her cord blood for Kate, and that sends her into remission ... for awhile. As Anna grows up, Kate's leukemia keeps coming back, requiring more and more invasive procedures for Anna as she donates her blood and bone marrow to keep her sister alive.
When Anna is 13, her sister's kidneys start to fail. This time, Anna is expected to donate a kidney, even though the doctors feel there is only a slim chance that Kate will be strong enough to survive the surgery and that she would recover afterwards. Anna decides enough is enough, and she hires a lawyer and goes to court to become medically emancipated and have the right to decide for herself how her body will be used.
It's not a perfect book -- the character of Julia is pretty useless, thrown in there as an excuse for housewife porn (OK, not graphic, but still unnecessary). Campbell's super secret medical condition is built up way more than it really is. The romance between him and Julia is silly. The author should have stuck with the cliche: worldly, hardened lawyer reluctantly accepts case, little girl helps him find his heart and humanity again. It would have worked better. I don't think the medium the author chooses for her narative works well -- she switches back and forth between the point of view of different characters. Her man perspectives don't work; it's like Lucille Ball when she has that Chaplin hat and moustache on -- you know she's supposed to be a man, but there's too much femininity going on to be convincing.
Although the book is about Anna's lawsuit, and although the family revolves around Kate and her illness, I think this story is really about Sara, the mother. When Kate is diagnosed with leukemia, Sara chooses at that moment whom she will love and dedicate her life to. The rest of the family members -- Jesse, Brian, and Anna -- pale in importance. She doesn't define herself as being a good mother the way most of us do: happy, healthy, productive children. Instead, she puts all her success and worth into keeping Kate alive.
As a mother of six, I do not find Sara to be a sympathetic character at all! One of the things I love most about being a mom is discovering the uniqueness of each child. There are hidden treasures that you have to dig for at every stage. It is amazing to watch them grow and change and become. Sometimes there's crap you have to fight through, but you fight through it out of love for your child, and the reward afterwards is amazing. Sara missed all of that, even with Kate, the focus of her attention.
SPOILER ALERT! Do not read further if you haven't finished the book or plan to read it later.
There was one moment when I thought Sara would be able to redeem herself. It was at the very end of the book, the last entry written from Sara's point of view. At that moment, she could have reflected on the irony of the situation -- how she mourned the fact that she may never see Kate go to her prom or graduate from high school or walk down the aisle someday, but now it was Anna who would never have those experiences. She could have reflected that she was so worried about what she might miss with Kate that she missed everything about Anna, and Jesse, too, for that matter. She could have shown some regret or remorse. Instead, she got what she wanted. Anna donated her kidney, and Kate was saved. It's fitting that Anna's life should end there. After all, that was the only reason she was born in the first place.
I thought the epilogue was a cheat. It didn't follow the entire story line that the author so painstakingly created. It's like a magic fairy wand erased all the consequences of the last 25 years. The real epilogue should have gone like this -- Kate should have died during the surgery or shortly thereafter, Jesse should have continued in his hoodlum ways (maybe a drug overdose?) and drifted further from his family, and Sara should have lost all three of her children as a consequence of her having so myopically tried to save just the one. THAT would have been a very satisfying ending to me! Sick, aren't I?
Please feel free to comment! One thing I love abot my book club, and what I expect when I go to our discussion, is that there are so many different perspectives. I'm looking forward to hearing from someone who was able to find sympathy for the mom. I'll write about the discussion after we have it, too!
