Early in Jodi Picoult’s emotional novel, Change of Heart (2008, Atria Books, 449 pages), someone murders a child named Elizabeth and her stepfather, a policeman.
Soon, two more characters, Shay Bourne, a death-row prisoner convicted for the double-killing, and Claire, Elizabeth’s sister, face death too. Their destinies become oddly intertwined.
“Everyone’s asking about Change of Heart, my new novel,” says Picoult. “A million copies are printed, which makes me feel like Stephen King instead of li’l ol’ me.”
Ironically, the book’s big flaw is a troubling similarity to King’s 1996 story, The Green Mile. Both have a prisoner with fading prospects able to heal and inspire. In Change of Heart, Shay, an uneducated carpenter, turns tragic hero, an incarcerated man who converts water into wine. Ready to face execution, he wants to donate his heart to the ailing Claire, who needs a transplant. But death by lethal injection will damage the heart and render it useless.
“Remember when you were little, a kid – and you’d fall asleep in the car? And someone would carry you out and put you into bed, so that when you woke up in the morning, you knew automatically you were home again. That’s what I think it’s like to die.”
Picoult creates other fascinating characters too. Maggie, a self-doubting lawyer consoled by a pet rabbit, wants “the Death Row Messiah” to die with dignity and a final miracle, the “change of heart”.
Father Michael, a priest, craves atonement for a past misdeed. He’s told: “You can track every polarizing issue in this country to religion. Stem-cell research, the war in Iraq, the right to die, gay marriage, abortion, evolution, even the death penalty – what’s the fault line? That Bible of yours.”
Lucius, an AIDs victim, lives in the next prison cell and tries to befriend Shay. “People were always ‘finding’ Jesus in jail. What if he was already here?”
June Nealon fights crippling grief and guides her daughter Claire’s battle for life. “If she received Shay Bourne’s heart, would I look at my daughter but see him staring back at me. Could I survive that?”
Readers, like the characters, face tough questions. “Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy’s dying wish?”
Picoult’s home state, New Hampshire, provides the setting. She’s written 15 novels, including Nineteen Minutes, The Tenth Circle, Vanishing Acts, My Sister’s Keeper, Plain Truth and The Pact.
At times, Change of Heart is a prison story, a family tragedy, a court-room thriller, a medical drama, a religious tale, a quest for redemption and a murder mystery. In all those categories, it scores well.
Approval rating: 71 per cent.
For more information: www.simonsays.com or www.jodipicoult.com
(April 6, 2008)
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Jodi Picoult follows
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