« Picoult-a-thon: Day 3, to page 228 | Main | Picoult-a-thon: Day... whatever »
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Picoult-a-thon: Day 4, to p. 304
I confess that I didn't take notes during this section, so I don't have a lot of detailed things to post about it. A few random thoughts:
Picoult's lawyers are always quirky. In House Rules, the lawyer is 28, a former farrier, suffering from a bit of a crush on Jacob's fortyish mother, and woefully inexperienced at practicing law. This is sometimes funny and usually harrowing. Good job on that, Ms. Picoult.
Not so good: more jarring non-literalness from Jacob during his turns at narration. I think it was technically after page 304 (I'm at the point where I just want to keep reading -- damn the blog updates! full speed ahead!), but there's one time when Jacob narrates about "a lick of cold air" that "wraps around" his ankles. I'm not saying that there aren't people with Asperger's who could think in those terms; I'm just saying that when you have a character who, when asked "Can you tell me your name?" replies, "Yes," with no sense of belligerence or irony, you can't have him rhapsodizing about ankle-wrapping licks of cold air a few pages later. This is definitely turning out to be the one major weak point in this story for me: Picoult can't set aside her own style long enough to let Jacob's voice through.
I waver occasionally, but my PPCSTE prediction is still the same, with the added angle that yes, I think Jacob did set up a crime scene as a forensics experiment, whatever else he may have been doing with Jess and her body. UNLESS -- unless this is all what she wants us to think, to throw us off the trail. I most certainly can not drink from the cup that is in front of you!* As Katie says, she's doing this just to mess with us.
*Unless, of course, I've spent the last five years building up an immunity to Picoulticane powder.**
**I do realize that I may well be the only person on planet Earth who is dorky enough to find this humorous.
