My sister's keeper
I've just started reading "My sister's keeper" By Jodi Picoult. It's a book I'd been meaning to get my hands on for ages. In my search for this one, I managed to find another one, "Perfect Match", which was a book that I must write about, another time..different take aways there.
Anyway, "My sister's keeper"; I knew this was going to be a difficult book to read. With no sides that could be taken, a story with questions that might be too difficult to even confront, let alone answer. I hadn't bargained on it being this hard hitting though. I am barely 50 pages through, and already, I need a break. This hasn't happened to me with any book. EVER.
There's no gore, no blood, no traumatic scenes written in heartbreaking detail. But the characters, their emotions, they're so raw, so real. It's like watching the story of someone's life unravel, completely unmasked, open to everyone's scrutiny.
Already, my mind is spinning with questions about the limits of love. About siblings and the extent one would go to; more specifically I would go to, when it is time to draw the lines between my life as my own, and my life as a member of a family.
In our minds, we all like to believe we are good humans, good daughters/sons, good friends, good brothers/sisters. In our minds, we all know, at least to a certain degree of certainty what the boundaries of each of these relationships are. That comes from a sense of self that we carry. Whether that sense gets strengthened over time because of practised introspection, or brews in our subconcious and we just happen to find it one fine day is irrelevant. But that awareness leads to our awareness of the lines that we draw in each of our interactions, no matter how close they are.
This book has already turned all that around on it's head. I can't wait to get back to reading it; if I kept it aside for sometime, I wouldn't really say I was missing anything.
For now, though, I shall go ahead and read it. The demons in my head be damned. If I need to remind myself time and again that I do love my sister a lot, that questions et al can wait until I get to the end of the book, I will do it. I will also let you'll know once done about the state of things in my head!!!
Anyway, "My sister's keeper"; I knew this was going to be a difficult book to read. With no sides that could be taken, a story with questions that might be too difficult to even confront, let alone answer. I hadn't bargained on it being this hard hitting though. I am barely 50 pages through, and already, I need a break. This hasn't happened to me with any book. EVER.
There's no gore, no blood, no traumatic scenes written in heartbreaking detail. But the characters, their emotions, they're so raw, so real. It's like watching the story of someone's life unravel, completely unmasked, open to everyone's scrutiny.
Already, my mind is spinning with questions about the limits of love. About siblings and the extent one would go to; more specifically I would go to, when it is time to draw the lines between my life as my own, and my life as a member of a family.
In our minds, we all like to believe we are good humans, good daughters/sons, good friends, good brothers/sisters. In our minds, we all know, at least to a certain degree of certainty what the boundaries of each of these relationships are. That comes from a sense of self that we carry. Whether that sense gets strengthened over time because of practised introspection, or brews in our subconcious and we just happen to find it one fine day is irrelevant. But that awareness leads to our awareness of the lines that we draw in each of our interactions, no matter how close they are.
This book has already turned all that around on it's head. I can't wait to get back to reading it; if I kept it aside for sometime, I wouldn't really say I was missing anything.
For now, though, I shall go ahead and read it. The demons in my head be damned. If I need to remind myself time and again that I do love my sister a lot, that questions et al can wait until I get to the end of the book, I will do it. I will also let you'll know once done about the state of things in my head!!!
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