WISH YOU WERE HERE

by Jodi Picoult

I first heard about Jodi Picoult’s new book Wish You Were Here when I heard Picoult in an interview on NPR. She said she’d written the novel as a way to deal with the strangeness and solitude she felt during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. She didn’t expect it to be published, but viewed it as more of a personal coping exercise. When friends read the manuscript, however, they encouraged her to go public. And I, for one, am glad she did.

In Wish You Were Here, Picoult tells the story of Diana O’Toole who has a dream job in the New York art world and lives with her devoted boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident in a New York City hospital. Diana is convinced Finn is about to propose marriage to her on their upcoming trip to the Galapagos Islands. They have their future together mapped out: jobs, kids, houses. But COVID-19 starts to ramp up just as Diana and Finn are set to leave for their vacation. Finn can’t leave the hospital and encourages Diana to go alone to the Galapagos so at least one of them can enjoy their non-refundable trip. Diana takes the trip and encounters a flood of tourists leaving the island just as she arrives. Determined to make the most of the situation, she decides to stay and ends up getting stuck there for weeks.

Picoult masterfully portrays Diana as a dynamo and a planner who has figured out her entire life. Until she finds herself stranded in paradise, unable to speak the native language or to communicate easily with Finn due to poor internet/phone/mail service. She hears enough to know that Finn is going through a nightmare in the hospital caring for an unending stream of COVID patients. I won’t spoil the truly amazing and unexpected turn the novel takes halfway through. I absolutely did not expect it! Wish You Were Here is a hugely entertaining and satisfying read. Go ahead – enjoy yourselves. (Liz)