Jodi Picoult brilliantly blends multiple points of view in Handle with Care, a well-researched novel about a child born with osteogenesis imperfect (brittle bone disease). Picoult also tackles multiple difficult topics (wrongful birth, medical malpractice, our litigious society, and abortion) and presents a balanced view that leaves readers able to make their own decisions about the issues. The personal, ethical, moral and social issues will haunt the reader for weeks.
When a long-awaited, much-desired child is diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfect in utero, the parents decide they want to keep her. However, as the baby’s bone fractures and medical bills mount—and there is no end in sight to them, the mother realizes that the family cannot make it on her husband’s policeman’s salary. She decides to sue for medical malpractice in a wrongful birth suit. Unfortunately, her obstetrician is her best friend. Friendships and families fall apart as the lawsuit moves through the court system. An unexpected twist at the end will break readers’ hearts.
The mother was a pastry chef before having to stop working to be the primary caregiver of her severely disabled, though precocious, daughter. Thus, multiple recipes are scattered through the book. I felt they disrupted the flow of the story and simply skipped over them.
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Handle with Care (Atria Books, February 20, 2009) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of other Jodi Piccoult books here:
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