Keeping Faith
- Book Review,
by Jodi Picoult
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Picoult's fluent and absorbing storytelling will welcome her new novel, which, like Harvesting the Heart, explores family dynamics and the intricacies of motherhood, and concludes, as did The Pact, with tense courtroom drama. In the small town of New Canaan, N.H., 33-year-old Mariah discovers that her husband, Colin, is having an affair. Years ago, his cheating drove Mariah to attempt suicide and Colin had her briefly committed to an institution. Now Mariah's facing divorce and again fighting depression, when her eight-year-old daughter, Faith, suddenly acquires an imaginary friend. Soon this friend is telling the girl how to bring her grandmother back from the dead and how to cure a baby dying of AIDS. As Faith manifests stigmata, doctors are astounded, and religious controversy ensues, in part because Faith insists that God is a woman. An alarmed Colin sues for custody of Faith, and the fear of losing her daughter dramatically changes meek, diffident Mariah into a strong, protective and brave womanAone who fights for her daughter, holds her own against doctors and lawyers and finds the confidence to pursue a surprising new romance with TV atheist Ian Fletcher, cynical "Spokesman of the Millennium Generation." Though the novel feels a bit long, Picoult's pacing stabilizes the increasingly complicated plot, and the final chapters, in which Mariah fights for Faith's custody in court, are riveting. The mother-daughter relationship is all the more powerful for being buffeted by the exploitative and ethically questionable domains of medicine, media, law and religion; these characters' many triumphant transformations are Picoult's triumphs as well. Agent, Laura Gross. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When seven-year-old Faith White and her mother, Mariah, swing by the house on the way to ballet class, they find that Daddy is home and he's brought a playmate. This is not the first time he's been caught cheating. After the fuss and feathers have settled and Dad has moved out, Faith begins talking to an imaginary friend who, it seems, is God. And God is not male but female. Faith is able to effect miraculous cures and is also occasionally afflicted with stigmata. When the media gets wind of this, the circus begins. The local rabbi takes an interest (Faith and Mariah are technically Jewish), and the local Catholic priest pays several inquiring visits. There is also a gaggle of psychologists. Throw in a professional atheist for the romance angle and a vicious custody fight with an egomaniacal lawyer, and you have a riveting read. Picot (The Pact, LJ 2/15/98) gets better and better with each book. If you can suspend disbelief on one or two points, this is an entrancing novel. Highly recommended.ADawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., TXCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Picoult blends elements of psychology and spirituality into a mesmerizing morality play, where conventional notions of faith and honesty are put to the test by a seemingly impossible series of extraordinary events. After emotionally fragile Mariah White discovers her husband in an affair, she lapses into depression. Confused by both her mother's inertia and her parents' impending divorce, seven-year-old Faith White begins receiving mysterious visitations from a woman she refers to as her "guard." In addition to obsessing about her imaginary friend, the religiously unschooled Faith also begins spouting passages from the Bible and healing the seriously ill. Rousing herself from the brink of mental collapse, Mariah brings her daughter to see so-called experts, including a psychologist, a rabbi, and a priest. When the media jump on the bandwagon, Mariah and Faith are besieged by an alternately awe-struck and angry host of believers and nonbelievers. As her life spins out of control, Mariah must fight public opinion, the legal system, and her outraged ex-husband in order to retain custody of Faith. Margaret Flanagan
From Kirkus Reviews
A sweetly affirmative portrait of mother-daughter love that explores big questions while also providing a riveting narrative of a custody battle. Picoult (The Pact, 1998, etc.) sets her tale in a small New Hampshire town during the last months of 1999 and intelligently addresses, without ever becoming strident or hysterical, such charged topics as mental illness and the existence of God. When Mariah comes home early one afternoon with seven-year-old daughter Faith and surprises husband Colin in bed with another woman, her carefully constructed world threatens to fall apart. The last time Colin was unfaithful, Mariah became suicidally depressed and was hospitalized until shortly before Faith's birth; this time, after a speedy divorce, she tries to adjust to being on her own, but soon her daughter begins behaving oddly. Faith quotes scriptures she's never been taught, claims she is speaking to God, miraculously resurrects her grandmother Millie (declared dead after a heart attack), and cures a child with AIDS. As the faithful, the ailing, and the curious gather outside Faith and Mariahs house, stigmata appear on the girls wrists and various religious representatives question her credibility. Television personality Ian Fletcher, who makes a living debunking religion, arrives to do a feature. Distressed by the turmoil and media frenzy, Colin, now remarried, blames Mariah and sues for custody. Mariah, though distraught, finds herself attracted to Ian, who has his own secrets, but before true love and justice can be done, Faith nearly dies and Mariah goes to court, where she must defend herself, her past, and her daughter against an array of hostile witnesses and skeptics. Masterfully telling a story more usually found in the tabloids, Picoult offers a perfectly pitched take on the great mysteries of the heart. Her best yet. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
For the second time in her marriage, Mariah White catches her husband with another woman, and Faith, their seven-year-old daughter, witnesses every painful minute. In the aftermath of a sudden divorce, Mariah struggles with depression and Faith begins to confide in an imaginary friend. At first, Mariah dismisses these exchanges as a child's imagination. But when Faith starts reciting passages from the Bible, develops stigmata, and begins to perform miraculous healings, Mariah wonders if her daughter--a girl with no religious background-might actually be seeing God. As word spreads and controversy flares, Mariah and Faith are besieged by believers and disbelievers alike, caught in a media circus that threatens what little stability they have left. Building inexorably to a climactic battle for custody, Keeping Faith explores a family plagued by the media, the medical profession, and organized religion in a world where everyone has an opinion but no one knows the truth. Fascinating, thoughtful, and suspenseful, this extraordinary novel is Jodi Picoult at her best: controversial and compelling.
About the Author
Jodi Picoult is the author of The Pact and six other critically acclaimed novels. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two sons, and daughter.
Excerpted from Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter OneMillions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.-John Milton,Paradise LostThere are certain things I do not talk about.Like when I was thirteen, and I had to take my dog and have her put to sleep. Or the time in high school that I got all dressed up for the prom and sat by the window, waiting for a boy who never came. Or the way I felt when I first met Colin.Well, I talk a little about that, but I don't admit that from the beginning I knew we were not meant to be together. Colin was a college football star; I'd been hired by his coach to tutor him to pass French. He kissed me- shy, plain, scholarly--on a dare from his teammates, and even muddled by embarrassment, it left me feeling gilded.It is perfectly clear to me why I fell in love with Colin. But I have never understood what made him fall for me.He told me that when he was with me, he became someone different-a person he liked better than the easygoing jock, the good ol' fraternity boy. He told me that I made him feel admired for what he was instead of what he'd done. I argued that I wasn't a match for him, not tall or stunning or sophisticated enough. And when he disagreed, I made myself believe him.I don't talk about what happened five years later, when I was proved right.I don't talk about the way he could not look me in the eye while he was arranging to have me locked away.Opening my eyes is a Herculean effort, Swollen and grainy, they seem resolved to stay sealed shut, preferring not to risk the sight of something else that might turn the world on end. But there is a hand on my arm, and for all I know it might be Colin, so I manage to slit them enough that the light, sharp as a splinter, comes into view. "Mariah", my mother soothes, smoothing my hair back from my forehead. "You feeling better?""No." I am not feeling anything. Whatever Dr. Johansen prescribed over the phone makes it seem as if there's a foam cushion three inches thick around me, a barrier that moves with me and flexes and manages to keep the worst away."Well, it's time to get moving," my mother says, matter-of-fact. She leans forward and tries to haul me from the bed."I don't want to take a shower." I try to curl into a ball."Neither do I." My mother grunts. The last time she'd come into the room, it was to drag me into the bathroom and under a cold spray of water. "You're going to sit up, damn it, if it sends me to an early grave."That makes me think of her coffin table, and of the ballet lesson Faith and I never did manage to get to three days ago. I pull away from her grasp and cover my face, fresh tears running like wax. "What is the matter with me?""Absolutely nothing, in spite of what that cretin wants you to believe." My mother puts her hands on my burning cheeks. "This is not your fault, Mariah. This isn't something you could have stopped before it happened. Colin isn't worth the ground he walks on." She spits on the carpet, to prove it. "Now sit up so that I can bring Faith in here."That gets my attention. "She can't see me like this.""So, change.""It's not that easy-""Yes, it is," my mother insists. "It's not just you this time, Mariah. You want to fall apart? Fine, then-do it after you've seen Faith. You know I'm right, or you wouldn't have called me to come over here and take care of her three days ago." Staring at me, she softens her voice. "She's got an idiot for a father, and she's got you. You make what you want of that."For a second I let hope sneak through the cracks in my armor. "Did she ask for me?"My mother hesitates. "No ... but that's neither here nor there." As she goes to get Faith, I adjust the pillows behind my back and wipe my face with a corner of the comforter. My daughter enters the room, propelled by my mother's hand. She stops two feet from the bed. "Hi," I say, bright as any actress.For a moment I just delight in seeing her--the crooked part of her hair, the space where her front tooth used to be, the chipped pink Tinkerbell polish on her fingernails. She folds her arms and sets her colt's legs and mulishly presses her beautiful bow of a mouth into a flat line."Want to sit down?" I pat the mattress beside me.She doesn't answer; she barely even breathes. With a sharp pain I realize that I know exactly what she's doing, because I've done it myself: You convince yourself that if you keep perfectly still, if you don't make any sudden moves, neither will anyone else. "Faith . .I reach out my hand, but she turns and walks out of the room.Part of me wants to follow her, but a larger part of me can't muster the courage. "She's still not talking. Why?""You're her mother. You find out."But I can't. If I have learned anything, it is my own limits. I turn onto my side and close my eyes, hoping that my mother will get the hint that I just want her to go away."You'll see," she says quietly, laying her hand on top of my head. "Faith is going to get you through...
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