THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS

by Jodi Picoult

When I recommended Jodi Picoult’s newest book to one of my book club’s for this month’s read, I felt sure that we would find an entertaining, not-too-taxing read in which believable people confront real problems and work to overcome them. That, in a tiny nutshell, is how I think of Picoult’s books. Don’t get me wrong: I read almost all of them. They can be a balm when all you want to read is a good, relatable human drama.

The Book of Two Ways does deliver drama, but in a way that left me unsatisfied. Picoult tells the story of a woman who, after surviving a plane crash, reassesses her life choices and heads back to Egypt to determine whether the career and man she left behind fifteen years before are what she should have chosen, rather than her actual husband and current life. Not only did I not sympathize with her quest to fire up her old relationship, but I found Picoult’s writing style to be clunky and jarring. It takes a certain skill set to impart non-fiction information about an arcane subject – here Egyptology – within the context of a fictional story about love and family and life choices. Picoult’s sections about archeological digs and discoveries were stilted and so difficult to follow as to be annoying.

Even if I had enjoyed the story more, Picoult’s heavy-handed archeological writing left me really not liking this book. For that reason, The Book of Two Ways was Not My Cup of Tea. (Liz)

P.S. For those of you who have read Dear Edward, by Ann Napolitano, did you find it weird and curious that two books came out at the same time where the main character has just survived a plane crash?