Book Review

its not that boring i assure you. yeap, to those living under a rock, reading won't actually kill you. wow i know. granted when the author does something with one of your characters, you'll die inside, but not flesh and blood killing, i assure you (papercut excluded). especially a good book. as in not that a good book will give you paper cuts, it'll keep you riveted for ages. but i am getting ahead of myself. two post in a week. wow. gotta be a record this year so far. i recently got my hands on a few Jodie Picoult books. she's a pretty good author. her works, need to be read and understood to be appreciated. at times though i feel she gets boring... i've read a few of her books, the most recent:

Salem Falls
by
Jodie Picoult

Set in the town of Salem Falls, New Hampshire in the U.S. its a small town, everybody knows everybody there. Jack St Bride was a teacher. he is handsome, charming and a very good teacher. he also teaches in a ALL girls school. you see already the drama coming. one of his students, Catherine Marsh, accuse him of having a relationship with her, a falsehood that ultimately lands him in jail fore 8 months. 8, because his lawyer asked him to plead guilt, in which he did. he finishes his sentence, and moves to Salem Falls. Getting a job at the Do-or-Diner, he tries to piece his life back together. The proprietor, Addie Peabody was a victim of rape herself when she was in high school. out of that unspeakably painful experience, she got a daughter, Chloe. Chloe was nine years old when she died of bacterial meningitis, and Addie was still reeling from it. in Jack, Addie found missing parts of herself and finally begun healing. due to a law in New Hampshire, Jack had to register himself with the police as a convicted sexual offender, and word of this began to spread, the townspeople did not like it at all.

Gilian Duncan, only daughter of a very successful businessman Amos Duncan, is practicing Wicca along with three of her friends, Chealsea, Whitney and Meg. they, especially Gilian, take and interest in Jack but Jack tried his level best to stay out of their way. one night after a very bad fight with Addie, Jack got pissed drunk and stumbled on the four girls celebrating Beltane, a Wiccan holiday. Gilian accused Jack of sexually assaulting her.

i am not sure why still now. maybe she was angry he rejected her sexual advances (Gilian is 17). maybe she wanted to keep her secret, that they were practicing Wicca from their parents. be that as it may, and it is interesting to note that ALL of Jodie P's books that i've read had lawyers and court procedings,

at the trial, the only substantial evidence leaning towards Jack assaulting Gilian was that the lab found semen stains on her thigh. dna analysis could not conclusively point it at Jack, but did show similarities between the dna from the semen and Gilian's own. Jack was acquitted, although Salem Falls' townspeople believe he should not have. Jack then moved to New York with Addie to reconcile with his mother.

it is interesting also, that throughout the novel, i was wondering why Gilian was being unnecessarily rude at weird times to her father and so sweet another time. the book closes with Amos kissing Gilian. her father kissed her. can you hazard a guess where the semen came from?

like i said, Jodie P's books takes alot to appreciate. they speak to you about human depravity, and about love, about sacrifices, about issues that matter in the world. like in Salem Falls, she quotes The Crucible. it is a book based on true events. The Crucible was about The Salem Witch Trials in the 1692, and the events that brought it about. the irony that i see, is that a witch (someone who practices Wicca) put another witch, also blameless and guiltless like in 1692, to trial. how many innocents have our 'justice' system put behind bars? innocents. a new age witch hunt. hmmmm....

-jing-