Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Sing You Home, by Jodi Picoult, was asuspenseful, addicting book that had simple, easy-to-read prose, but dealt withcomplex and difficult issues (like many of Picoult’s books.) Overall, I feel itwas a success, though I did have problems with it. This book in particular, asis clear from the description, dealt with gay rights, institutionalizedhomophobia, and the role of religion (notably Evangelical Christianity) in suchinstitutionalized homophobia. There were several other high-profile, chargedissues in this book as well. The gay rights vs. Evangelical Christianitystoryline resonated most with me and took up a large portion of the book, sothat’s what my focus is on here.

Things I liked: Puts a human face oncontroversy.

What Picoult does best is put humanfaces on these complicated and politically charged issues. I empathized witheach of the three narrators although they conflicted with one anotherthroughout most of the book.

Picoult calls into question whether thecurrent system we have for dealing with such issues is fair. This is mostnoticeable in the court scenes that make up the final third of the book. As insome of her other books, the author really seems to want to show how highlypublicized, politicized, and complex court cases, which are meant to decidewhat is fair and help people resolve problems, can be stressful, harmful, andhurtful to the people actually involved in the case. This book also questionswhether a court and legal precedents can truly decide and dictate the rightthing; in fact, the book implies that they cannot, at least without additionalmoral support.

Things I didn’t like: Read like a movie at times

These courtroom scenes do ratchet up the suspense to an extent, but honestly they were my least favorite part ofthe book, and I felt they went on a little bit too long. Each time thecharacters entered a courtroom, the lawyers and witnesses at the front wouldtake center-stage, to the point where readers feel like they are just watchingthe stage. Several times, I actually forgot who was narrating, because each narrator's voice just wasn’t very prominent at this point in the novel. It was like watching alawyer drama on TV. Maybe this is a sign that this book didn’t really need tobe in first person; maybe it just needed better editing. But I personallywouldn’t have minded if the pacing had slowed here to allow for a little morecharacter from each narrator to shine through.

Things I liked: Topical!

This book will probably attract a lot ofattention because it is timely: homophobia and other GLBT-related issues arereally on people’s radar right now. This book was published in 2011, after astring of homophobic-bullying-related suicides and after the formation of theIt Gets Better campaign. In fact, I believe that buying this book donates some of the money you spent on it to the Trevor Project, a hotline that is designed to deal particularly with homophobia and GLBT issues. I think it’s good that issues like these are gettingattention from readers and authors alike in the fiction world. I think that areader who is interested in issues dealing with homosexuality and homophobiawill find a lot of valuable things to take away from this book.

Things I didn’t like: Stereotypedhomophobic Christians

This is probably my biggest issue with the book as a whole. All of the Christian characters were portrayed as ignorant(with the exception of Max, who narrated, and whose spiritual journey was oneof the book’s focuses, but who always seemed somewhat weak). One particular character frustrated me quite a bit: anignorant, rude, massively heterosexist lawyer who was a media-seekingEvangelical Christian but who did not have a single redeeming quality in hischaracter. He was a one-dimensional monster who is impossible to relate to orlike.

In my opinion, the novel didn’t gainanything by making this character a complete monster, and probably just wasted space making readers angry. I think Picoult was just trying to make it really, reallyobvious how hurtful and damaging religious-motivated homophobia can be. Theproblem is, many of us are already painfully aware of this; we hear stories like this one inthe media all the time, and it’s kind of frustrating to re-experience this them so heavy-handedly in the book. If she is trying to make readers who are homophobic and prejudiced be less homophobic and prejudiced, I'm not convinced this book will be enough to do so. A lot of Christian readers will probably feel alienated (there is nota single Christian-identified character or experience in this book which ispresented in an undeniably positive light), which makes people defensive and less open and willing to listen to newideas, not more. I wouldn't be surprised if some people get so frustrated that they don't want to finish the book.

Other Features:

My copy of this book came with a CD that Jodi Picoult wrote the lyrics for, from Zoe's point of view. I don't really think the CD is anything special, but it's a cool gimmick.

After I finished this book, I listened to Jodi Picoult's podcast about her experience writing Sing You Home on her webpage. In her research, she interviewed people from a GLBT community as well as representatives from Focus on the Family. I enjoyed hearing her discuss some of the issues in her book and how she related to them. You can download it from her website here.

Conclusion

The novel is not as strong as it couldhave been. I feel it could have been a fantastic novel had the author and/orher editor been more thorough prior to the book’s release. It does tie up mostof the loose ends by the end, but there are a lot of complicated issues herethat deserve more time than the book allows for. The resolution is weak and aslight letdown after all the issues that are brought up in the book. However, Ido think it will get people talking, which is a good thing. If this book interests you, I suggest you try it out. If you are like my sister and think that it "sounds depressing" then I'd suggest you think about it before you read: it is fairly sad. That being said, I am certainly not sorry I read it, and I'd enjoydiscussing this book further with other readers.

Our next blog post will be written by my sister and will be up two weeks from today. I don't know what she's reviewing yet, but I have a hunch it might be The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, which comes out on January 10. We are both fans of John Green and very excited for this book! From here on out, expect a new post every other Monday.

Happy New Year!