Handle with Care: A Novel [Paperback]

Jodi Picoult (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 15, 2009

Things break all the time.

Day breaks, waves break, voices break.

Promises break.

Hearts break.

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.

Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Perennial bestseller Picoult (Change of Heart) delivers another engrossing family drama, spiced with her trademark blend of medicine, law and love. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter, Willow, was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that requires Charlotte to act as full-time caregiver and has strained their emotional and financial limits. Willow's teenaged half-sister, Amelia, suffers as well, overshadowed by Willow's needs and lost in her own adolescent turmoil. When Charlotte decides to sue for wrongful birth in order to obtain a settlement to ensure Willow's future, the already strained family begins to implode. Not only is the defendant Charlotte's longtime friend, but the case requires Charlotte and Sean to claim that had they known of Willow's condition, they would have terminated the pregnancy, a statement that strikes at the core of their faith and family. Picoult individualizes the alternating voices of the narrators more believably than she has previously, and weaves in subplots to underscore the themes of hope, regret, identity and family, leading up to her signature closing twists. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Sure, Jodi Picoult can be formulaic, but few critics seemed to mind her well-researched, domestic-and-legal-drama-told-through-multiple-viewpoints framework for Handle With Care. Except for the Boston Globe, which noted that "the construct feels a little tired and trepid, creating more distance than illumination," reviewers embraced Picoult's latest offering. Told primarily through the voices of Willow's mother, her father, her adolescent sister, the obstetrician, and a lawyer, the novel wrenched readers' hearts as it examines motherhood, family, and disability. The bonus? Charlotte, a renowned pastry chef, adds a little sweetness to the family tragedy by interspersing her dessert recipes throughout the novel.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743296427
• ISBN-13: 978-0743296427
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (494 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up on Long Island with my parents and my little brother, the product of a ridiculously happy childhood. My mom says I've been writing as long as she remembers - my first masterpiece was "The Lobster That Was Misunderstood," at age 5. I honed my writing skills beyond that, one hopes, before I headed off to Princeton, where I wanted to work with living, breathing authors in their creative writing program. Mary Morris was my teacher/mentor, and I really do believe I wouldn't be where I am today if not for her guidance and expertise. I had two short stories published in SEVENTEEN magazine when I was in college. However, when I graduated, a desire to not eat ramen noodles exclusively and to be able to pay my rent led me to take a job on Wall Street (not a great idea, since I can't even balance my checkbook). When the stock market crashed in 1987, I moved to Massachusetts and over the course of two years, worked at a textbook publishing company, taught creative writing at a private school, became an ad copywriter, got a master's in education at Harvard, got married, taught at a public school, and had a baby. My first novel was published shortly after my son was born, and I've always said that the reason I kept writing is because it's so much easier than teaching English.

In fourteen years, I've published thirteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale, Harvesting the Heart, Picture Perfect, Mercy, The Pact, Keeping Faith, Plain Truth, Salem Falls, Perfect Match, Second Glance, My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts, and the upcoming The Tenth Circle, this March. Two of my books (Plain Truth and The Pact) were made into Lifetime TV movies; Keeping Faith will be another. My Sister's Keeper is in development at New Line Cinema to be a feature film. And there isn't a single day that I don't stop and marvel at the fact that when I go to work, I get to do what I love the most.

My husband Tim and I live in Hanover, NH with our three kids, a dog, a rabbit, and the occasional donkey or cow.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#34 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#2 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#2 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 170 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars This is the last Jodi Picoult book I will read March 19, 2009

By Jennifer Brooks

Format:Hardcover

I've read ALL of Jodi Picoult's books. Some of my favorites are Perfect Match, My Sister's Keeper, and The Pact. Compared to those books, her latest release, Handle with Care, is contrived, sloppy, boring, and disappointing. Oh, and too many points of view included. I almost laughed at the ending because I honestly didn't think the book could have ended with more of a cop-out.

It doesn't seem like the publishers bothered copyediting or proofreading this book. Kitty Litter should not be capitalized. I don't care how "mature" a 6 year old is, she would create a Gmail account. And, Jodi, please spare me the gratuitous references to Facebook. These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head -- there were many more.

Perhaps releasing one book a year is too much for Jodi Picoult, because the product is suffering. Her stories used to be contemporary, heart-wrenching and full of plot twists.

Handle with Care is simply a regurgitation of lawyers, sisters with issues, second marriages, etc. With some bulimia and cutting thrown in and not really addressed. Not to mention the recipes. What was the point of those? Charlotte's career as a pastry chef seems conveniently trendy and never becomes anything more than that, except for the lame recipes scattered throughout the book. It's like Jodi's editors and marketing team sat around a table and came up with every single thing they could incorporate into this book and then threw each thing in, none of which were successful.

I'm glad I got this from the library instead of purchasing it. What a disappointment. Don't bother.

69 of 80 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars "My Sister's Keeper" Part Two March 11, 2009

By Bookreader

Format:Hardcover

I really love Jodi Picoult's books. I find she tackles very tough subjects in a captivating and stimulating manner. She takes chances on subjects that other authors just gloss over too afraid to really speculate about the feelings of the participants. If you were the mother of a child that was bullied or was the bully, "Nineteen Minutes" was your worst nightmare. So believable.

I found "Handle With Care" engrossing. I have a child with limited handicaps and I felt for Willow with every breath. But for me this was one more trial, one more heart-wrenching child, one more set of confused and inarticulate parents, one more lawyer with "issues" and one more manipulated ending too many. I can't tell you how very disappointed I was with this book. Lots of meringue but the filling was not fresh.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Handled with care and knew she was loved... March 5, 2009

By Amy Y. TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

but all the care in the world cannot save the people we love necessarily.

I had this book delivered to my kindle the day it was released and read it straight through.

I'll tell you right up front I am a Jodi Picoult fan. Easy, entertaining reads- great for bathtubs and airports and right before bed. Some of her books have been less entertaining than others but I always find I enjoy the way she paints such a realistic portrait of her characters. I really do feel for them.

This story, as you'll read in other reviews and the synopsis, is about a family dealing with their youngest daughter's affliction with osteogenesis imperfecta which causes brittle and easily broken bones. Willow, so named by her mother who wanted to give her a legacy of something that would bend and not break despite her husband's protestation that willows weep- here Picoult gives such a combination of foreshadowing because Willow turns out to be an amazing, strong little character with such a love and longing for all the amazing things in the world.

The story goes far beyond a girl or her family coping with a debilitating disease. Not unlike in "My Sister's Keeper", Picoult shines light on the relationship of two siblings... one 'normal' and the other 'broken' and the center of attention, 'handled with care'. The braid that exists between sisters of jealousy and love and connection. She also hits home with poignant moments that so many of us can relate to, for example when Amelia(the elder daughter) says, " "Yes," I said, the lie coming easily, reminding me that, even as much as I hated her right now, I was my mother's daughter."

Like many of Picoult's books, this one is written from multiple points of view and the chapters are titled with the name of whose story is being told and the date which provides a nice sense of continuity and timing.

This book, without giving away the specific plot details, is all about the lies we find ourselves telling, the people we find ourselves changing into in order to protect those we love, what and who we are willing to sacrafice and the pain and necessity of it all... but also to protect our belief... that we have done all we can do, that we have been the best we can for those that we love and in the end, really cannot help or save. And that is more about saving ourselves than anyone else.

An easy read, very touching and gripping. Reading Picoult's writing is a little like listening to someone play the piano with the modulations in tone, slower, faster, rising, falling and finally coming together in the end. "Handle with Care" ends with a wonderful and terrible irony, a lesson for everyone who reads this tale I think.

Definately worth the read but be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions if you allow yourself to go there. I did, and it was well worth the ride.