Perfect Match By Jodi Picoult 2

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

"Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult is about a young boy named Nathaniel whom is molested at the age of five and how his Mother, Nina deals with this conflict. Nina is a prosecutor against child molestation cases and when he own child's mental health is at stake she will do anything possible to help bring the rapist to justice. At one point Nina even points the blame at her husband Caleb but when he is proven not guilty she begs him to forgive her and their marriage happily continues. Nina finally decides that a certain priest is definitely the molester and she shoots him in court. During all of this conflict I noticed another side story. 

There is a very conflicting love triangle that has ensued in "Perfect Match". The love triangle is in between the mother named Nina, her husband Caleb and Nina's best childhood friend Patrick. The deal with this triangle is that Caleb is devoted to his wife but knows that Patrick has an undying love for Nina. Nina talks to Patrick for advice but doesn't truly see that he is anything more than a best friend. The whole time while reading the book you truly realize that Patrick is a good guy and Caleb is just....distant. 

Patrick has always shown a loyalty towards Nina and refuses to speak to her when she tries to tell him about why she killed the priest. Patrick knows that he must testify in her trial since he was a witness but he doesn't want to put Nina in jail for the rest of her life by telling the truth to the court. Patrick at one point says, "Nina is the only one I'll ever love" when he meets a pretty girl at a bar. He doesn't let the girl get to him and runs to Nina's house to comfort her in a time of need. I think that Patrick is a great guy for her because he is completely devoted to her and will do anything to protect her.

Caleb, on the other hand, seems to love Nina in a very distant way. He always mentions that he knows her completely and that nothing surprises him anymore which is not healthy for a marriage. Caleb always seems to find more comfort in his son than in Nina and doesn't ever try to intrude on Nina's close friendship with Patrick. He doesn't even say anything to protect their marriage which doesn't make any sense at all. This is what I thought of the love triangle in "Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult. 

The Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult

I am currently reading "The Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a young boy named Nathaniel and his mother Nina, who is a lawyer to persecute rapists. One day Nathaniel stops speaking and is not acting normally. He suddenly begins to show signs of a traumatic experience and soon his parents are afraid. Nina then uses her past work to discover that all the clues add up to one thing, Nathaniel was sexually assaulted, even though he is only five. The book is mainly about how Nathaniel will tell his parents who molested him and how he will recover. I wanted to solve the social action question: "whose perspective is missing?".

I think that Nathaniel's traumatized perspective is missing in the story. The author splits the narroration between Nina, Nathaniel, the father (Caleb) and their friend Patrick. Whenever Nathaniel's perspective is written he always seems normal and talks about the toys he wants to play with. It seems as if he is completely unaware of why he cannot speak or of what happened to him. Without this voice the book is not as disturbing and the story becomes more of a mystery because the reader is limited. I also found the fact that the author included Nathaniel at all makes the story much more fascinating to read. This is because you really feel as if you're experiencing the story and trying to solve the mystery along with the characters. 

Nathaniel's perspective stands out from others, partly because he is the youngest character in the story and his mindset is clearly in the writing. Without the assailant's perspective you mostly rely on Nathaniel to help you understand what truly happened. If the molester's point of view was shown then everyone else's view would be completely obstructed. Perspective truly makes a difference in this story because the author used the craft of using everyone's perspective except the culprit. These are the perspectives in "The Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult. 

The History of Love By Nicole Krauss

There are many difficult and complex things going on in "The History of Love". The book is about a family dealing with the death of their father/husband and a man trying to accept the fact that he is aging. I found that the man, Leo Gursky, has a lot of complex issues that were really deep. Leo struggles with the concept that he is growing older and that he cannot do certain things. For example, Leo never looks in the mirror because he doesn't want to see the sagging under his eyes.

Leo is also a fascinating character because he has never gotten over the love he lost. Leo lived during the Holocaust in Poland and the love of his life left for New York City before he could chase after her. It took him about ten years to finally see her again but she was already happy and remarried with two kids. While Leo uses his love as an excuse to live in a pig stye and never try anything new, I still feel awful that he must live alone. Leo also has a friend named Bruno who tried to commit suicide because he didn't see the point in living if he wasn't doing anything anymore.

I think that Leo really wants to do something with his life but he has a strong barrier between trying to reflect on his awful past and getting over the past in order to do something in the future. I find this really complex because I have never had any experience like that because I am so young. I think that the author will change Leo to make him leave the house more often. These are the things and ideas that are really complex in the book, "The History of Love".

Everything Is Illuminated 2

***SPOILER ALERT***
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In the book, "Everything Is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer, I found the character of Brod to be very unordinary. According to the Jonathan (the main character), Brod is his "very great-grandmother" who dates back to the 1800s in The Ukraine. Brod was found as a baby in the river, she was said to be a miracle because her father did not survive and probably drowned in the river. Her adoptive father is chosen by lottery and Yankel, a very old and wise man is the winner of the child. Yankel teaches Brod many things which changes her personality forever.

In the book it says, "life is an empty void" according to Brod. Brod struggles with a deep sense of depression based upon what Yankel taught her. Yankel's wife left him, and in his response to create something more lively for Brod to imagine as her Mother, he imagines the most perfect woman. This unknown Mother seems to create Brod's depression and she cannot truly grasp the idea that her depression is not normal. As the reader I didn't understand why she should be so depressed because her life is so perfect and yet she still finda a way to make herself miserable.

At 15 or so, Yankel now such an old man dies and Brod is left to marry the man named, "The Kolkier". Her husband is a very sweet and gentle man that wants nothing more than to please Brod, though it seems that their love is not deep but physical. Throughout their marriage, Brod seems to misunderstand love and when "The Kolkier" states he wants to live apart from her she says, "love is a room". Personally, I know that love is not where you are but it's who you're in love with and that was when I knew that Brod had never loved nor knew that she was loved.

Brod Safran is a character I truly do not connect with, mostly because her emotions and actions do not make sense to me. Brod is sweet and gentle but doesn't understand her emotions, so she just tries to go along with where life takes her and does not take risks. I think that the author used Brod as a little loophole you could see the past through and realize the very cycles we go through as we grow up. That is why I found Brod to be such a strange, thoughtful and unique character.

Everything Is Illuminated

"Everything Is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer seems extremely interesting in the way the author decided to organize his writing. The character, Jonathan who is based off the author, goes on a journey to meet the woman who saved his grandfather during the Holocaust. I saw part of the movie two years ago and I found the story fascinating because the author decided to do something very unique. The narrator is a Ukrainian translator that knows some butchered English and Jonathan is an accomplished writer. The author wanted the narrator to tell the story using extremely sophisticated vocabulary words and as the sentence continues the words are extremely simple and do not make sense with the very accomplished word he had previously used.

The author also wanted to tell the story of a Jewish culture during 1791-1793. The translator suddenly launches into the story of a man who vanishes (or may be dead) and how he had left behind almost everything he owned, including a baby, in a riverbank. It also shows a very comedic side to the Jewish holiday in the story they call, Trachim, after the man who vanished. The author also talks about the very long prayers that are screamed from the rabbis and the strange townspeople. The author created an entire world of extremely gossipy and nosy people whom are very interesting.

The author is extremely creative in the way he decided to write the book and create the all those completed characters. The world of Jonathan Safran Foer is fascinating and a thrill to read. The movie was particularly funny from the almost psychotic characters thrown into the quest. For anyone who can carry a dictionary with them while their reading this will probably enjoy this, even though I've only read about 30 pages myself.

The Book Thief

*****THIS CONTAINS SOME SPOILER ALERTS *****


"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, is the best book I have read this year. The story is about a German Chrisitian girl named Leisel Meminger, who moves to Munich (Himmel Street) during the Holocaust, after her mother abandons her. Leisel moves in with her new foster parents and begins to read many books, even ones that have been banned by Adolf Hitler. As the story continues, the writing truly shows the struggle of the community between choosing to support the "Fuhrer" or trying to save the Jews. Eventually, you see that Leisel's adoptive father despises the Nazis and will do anything in his power to save the Jew he hides in the basement, Max.

The part of this book that really hooked me in was the narrator, who is actually the spirit of death. The author chose to write from the perspective of an omnicient character who even reveals that some people may die in the book, what may happen to some of the characters or what a character is actually thinking on the inside that none of the other characters in the story know. By using this character as the narrator you are able to see a perspective I don't think anyone has discussed about the Holocaust. Many people say that it is unfair to tear loved ones away from us, for any reason. The fact that the author included Death in this plot is even worse though because these loved ones that were taken away, were tortured and everyone was convinced that death was truly evil.

The author actually tries to portray the character of Death to be somber as he manages to retrieve every soul. The author at one point included that, "God gives us these tasks. We cannot control what we are meant to be. Sometimes I curse at God and ask him why he gave me this job out of all. He never responds, yeah you're not the only one he doesn't talk to". The narrator also feels bad, not just for the Jews that are killed, but for the Germans that were killed during the many bombs that struck Germany during World War II. I felt very simpathetic towards the narrator because he has to see the pain that we all have to face when we lose someone. When one of the characters died in the book, I began to sob uncontrollably because it reminded me that we can never see that person once again, you only have your memories. Towards the very end of the book, after one of the main character dies, he states, "she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding".

I found the narrator to be a major part of why I loved this book so much. The author was so creative and inspiring to me because that is a character that us, humans do not understand or know because we do not know what is on the other side or if god truly exists. The fact that she could give a symbol a personality and fears astounds me. To anyone who read this response and has not read the book, please read it. It's one of those books you cannot put down and will be one you will never forget. I still get chills just thinking about how much I loved this book.

Water For Elephants 2

SPOILER ALERT ***********


Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is about a man named Jacob who reflects his life when he hops a circus train, to abandon his old life without his family, and ends up taking the job as a veterinarian. While in the process of working at the circus Jacob meets a schizophrenic equestrian director named August, a brilliant and very pretty girl named Marlena (who is the wife to Augustus) and Uncle Al the ringmaster for the circus who will do anything it takes to make his circus anything alike to the ringling brother circus. As the story continues Jacob's desire to run away from his nursing home increases. Jacob will do anything to have an adventure in order to abandon the sad life he lives, in almost complete solitude. I discovered that a theme to this story is to do what you want and not let anyone stop you.

As an old man Jacob can barely walk, he is usually wheeled everywhere and can barely make it down the hallway with his walker. The sad part is though at one point Jacob says, “Nothing wrong with me but old age". This shows that he could easily leave the nursing home in order to live his dreams but “the horse-faced" nurse keeps him from leaving. Also at one point in the story Jacob tries to make a run for it but a nurse suddenly calls to him and asks him where he's going. Then Jacob is moved back in his wheelchair to his room where he dozes and thinks about his life in the circus. My Mother is an elder law lawyer and she always explains to me that all over the country many elderly people want to leave the nursing home but, the only reason the elderly are living at nursing homes is either because, the person can no longer take care of themselves, or that the family can no longer have the time or the money to take care of that person. 

At another point Jacob has a romantic fantasy about an exotic dancer who worked at the circus. Jacob is soon woken up to a nurse and is completely embarrassed when he learns that he was mumbling things about his dream. I felt that this truly shows the desperation Jacob feels to escape his life and go back to the adventurous times he had with the circus. The romantic fantasy also helped explain to me, as the reader that Jacob feels very lonely since his wife passed away and, now he is all alone. The nurse doesn't even comfort Jacob but tells him, “well you were talking in your sleep, that's sure enough". I think this part of the story truly told me that Jacob's ideals for his life to end were very different compared to the way the nurses wanted him to live. 

At the very end of the book Jacob begins to wait for his son, Simon to take him to the circus that just moved across the street. Soon all the visitors have talked to their parents or grandparents who live at the nursing home and Jacob is left sitting alone. The nurse then tells Jacob that Simon was too busy to go see his father. Jacob realizes that he shouldn't sit around to daze about his old life and, wait for other people who don't have time for him. Jacob suddenly believes he should make the choice to start living again. Jacob then gets the strength which is (metaphorical and literal) to walk out of the nursing home and go see the circus. I feel a lot of respect for Jacob because I wish that I could accomplish certain dreams but I am always too scared or too nervous to do so. 

I think that Jacob throughout the book learns from his mistakes of watching his life go by. Instead of waiting any longer he goes to live and finish his life by going to see the circus and, finally joining the new circus. I think that this is an underlying theme throughout the book, since so many people focus on the plot in his past life but, I felt that this was a main rule of life to follow and promise. I never want to end up in a nursing home, that's boring. I'd rather go out and start a new journey or path, than fantasizing about how I wish I had the strength to fulfill my dreams. The best part for me about this story was that Jacob could've given up and stayed at the facility but he joined the circus, at 93. Now that's an accomplishment I want to achieve but I would need to have the strength and the mental capability to do so. That's what I believe the main theme is in Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.