October’s ¡Adelante! Book of the Month Club selection is Jodi Picoult’s Handle with Care, a story about a family dealing with a child’s debilitating genetic condition. This book was submitted by Jayne Kasten of the AAUW Ballwin-Chesterfield (MO) Branch in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
The story is told from six different perspectives as quasi-letters to Willow O’Keefe, a 6-year-old with osteogenesis imperfecta, or fragile-bone syndrome. Willow’s bones are so delicate that even bouncing on a bed could cause a fracture. The family decides on a wrongful birth lawsuit against the doctor who did the initial ultrasound because she failed to notice the unusually clear brain image. The doctor also happens to be a good friend of the family’s. And the lawyer they use is going through a personal crisis trying to find her birth mother. Still following?
Picoult, while relying heavily on melodrama and formula, does raise some interesting questions about the ethics of this type of lawsuit. What parent could get up in front of a jury and swear that their child’s birth was a mistake? But on the flipside, if saying so could get your child the money she needs to live a more normal life, does that make it OK? Picoult spells out the six narrators’ often conflicting feelings on the matter without preaching or giving her own definitive opinion. In fact, the book’s ending could be seen as a way to avoid hard conclusions on the matter.
This isn’t my favorite type of book, but it did make me think. My husband and I had a very long conversation about what we might do if something that extreme ever happened in our family, and we weren’t able to come up with any easy answers either. What about you?
Even just reading your review, let alone the book, made me question what I would do in such a situation. I can honestly say I don’t know what I/we would do. I like the fact that this review and the book bring such a difficult dilemma to the forefront. Thinking and discussing “what would we do” is a good thing even if you can’t find the answer right away.
WOW! This seems to be a great read and one that will make me think of a number of things as my husband and I consider having our first child. I have to check this book out and let you know what would we do….