Keeping Faith
CDN$ 9.02
Couldn t put down this book - I m new to Jodi Picoult & thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it hard to put down even though I should have been going to sleep!
thought provoking - i had recieved a gift voucher from a friend, and looking through the shelves at my local book store I could find nothing except for this book which caught my eye. I was interested, of course, so i got the book. I wasn t dissapointed. This is a story about a little girl who is seeing her ",guard",, who might be god, as in THE GOD, christian god. It then brings up many questions to do with faith, right down to family. I read this before THE PACT, so I think it is better than that book. After reading the pact and this book, I realise that Jodi Picoult books are all the same, so if you read one, you ve read them all. It has kind of scared me off reading any more of her work.
Picoult is a fine storyteller - There are those authors that are fine writers and those that are fine storytellers. It s always a pleasure to come across an author that is endowed with both gifts. Keeping Faith is a highly readable, thought provoking look at religious dogma, family secrets and modern relationships. What would you choose to believe if confronted with the unexplainable? Can true religious miracles exist in this age of doubt? Picoult does not try to steer us in any one direction, just poses the questions and provides the fodder for thought and discussion. For that she gets 4.5 stars. My only negative comment pertains to the point of view, which jumps between a third person and first person narrative. I often found it confusing and rather offputting and would have preferred a consistent type of narration.
Great Novel - Annotation: For the second time in her marriage, Mariah White catches her husband with another woman, and Faith, their seven-year-old daughter, witnesses every painful minute. In the aftermath of a sudden divorce, Mariah struggles with depression and Faith begins to confide in an imaginary friend, which leads to reciting passages from the Bible, developing stigmata, and beginning to perform miraculous healings, Mariah wonders if her daughter-a girl with no religious background-might actually be seeing God. As word spreads and controversy flares, Mariah and Faith are besieged by believers and disbelievers alike, caught in a media circus that threatens what little stability they have left.Author Bio: Jodi Picoult grew up in Nesconset, New York. Her previous novels include Plain Truth, Mercy, Keeping Faith, and The Pact. Jodi Picoult received an A.B. in creative writing from Princeton and a master s degree in education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of ten previous novels, including Second Glance, Perfect Match, and Salem Falls. Jodi Picoult s novels center on family, relationships, and the balance of love. Riveting plots bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned. Eleven of her published books have been critically acclaimed.Evaluation: Many people have their own opinions of Mariah and Faith. When it came to the custody battle between Mariah and Colin, Mr. Metz took advantage of the fact that Mariah was institutionalized. He made her out to be a mentally unbalanced person, as well as an unfit parent. Many people as well as the media felt that Mariah was the one who made Faith pretend she was seeing God. Towards the end of the novel, Mariah won custody of Faith. Everything worked out for the better. Also, the curious people still didn t know if Faith was really seeing God or not, because everyone had their own opinions and beliefs about it.Overall, Keeping Faith is an extremely well written novel. Jodi Picoult kept me reading until the end. I just couldn t seem to put this novel down. It deals with love, heartbreak, judgments, battles, and religion. There are so many elements that keep the reader wanting to know what happens next. I love the fact that at the end, the people are left not knowing whether or not Faith was really seeing God. It just depends on your opinion or belief. I definitely recommend that everyone should read Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult.
A Page Turner! - KEEPING FAITH by Jodi PicoultThis was my second book by Jodi Picoult, and I will definitely be reading more by her. As with THE PACT, KEEPING FAITH centered on a controversial topic, something that would be seen in today s headlines. In KEEPING FAITH, there are two themes - one of a family being torn apart by infidelity and divorce, and the other one centering on the child that is caught in the middle. But this is not any ordinary child custody story. What happens here is something that is only seen in Catholic history books and other religious literature: Seven-year-old Faith is discovered to have powers that are akin to miracles performed by Catholic saints.Faith s news brings the media to their home town, everyone wanting to witness and spread the tale of this little girl who can bring back the dead, who is suffering from stigmata (spontaneous bleeding from the hands and feet), and can perform other miracles. Her mother Mariah is trying her best to deal with this plus deal with her broken marriage. With the help of her mother, Mariah tries to make sense of what is happening. When her ex-husband Colin finds out what is happening to Faith, he uses this to point fingers at Mariah, telling the world she is causing her own daughter to suffer and become a media circus. He files for custody, when only a few months ago he had walked out the door, not bothering to look back. Faith is torn between her two parents, and at the same time finds herself in the middle of this mystery about herself, not knowing why she is able to do what she does.KEEPING FAITH is a riveting, complex story that will keep the reader interested till the very end. It is what I definitely call a page-turner. Highly recommended!