Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Contemporary Realistic Fiction
“If you chose to stop a loved one’s suffering—either before it began or during the process—was that murder, or mercy?”
“I would never have wished for an able-bodied child, because that child would have been someone who wasn’t you.”
“You were Willow, pure and simple. There was nobody else like you. I knew it the moment I first held you, wrapped in foam so that you wouldn’t get hurt in my arms: your soul was stronger than your body, and in spite of what the doctors told me over and over, I always believed that was the reason for the breaks. What ordinary skeleton could contain a heart as big as the whole world?”
Six year old Willow was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which is a brittle bones disease. She will have several hundred broken bones in her, most likely, short life, among an array of other disabilities that will cause pain and constant struggle. Her parents, Charlotte and Sean love her just the way she is, she is perfect. After a nightmarish trip to Disney World, they visit a lawyer who advises them they have a case for a lawsuit, just not the kind they were thinking, a wrongful birth suit.
“I didn’t know if I could muster the courage to sue for wrongful birth. Saying abstractly that there were some children who shouldn’t be born was hard enough, but this went one step further. This meant saying one particular child — my child — shouldn’t have been born. What kind of mother would face a judge and a jury, and announce that she wished her child had never existed?
Either the kind of mother who didn’t love her daughter at all . . . or the kind of mother who loved her daughter too much.”
Charlotte and Sean are at odds in regards to the lawsuit. Charlotte’s motivation is to give Willow the best life imaginable, the best care money could buy however the OB-GYN that she is suing for malpractice is her best friend. Sean is concerned about how Willow will take her mother suing that she should never have been born, no matter how much to the contrary they try to convince her. Another victim in this story is their older daughter Amelia. Already struggling for attention being the sibling of a disabled child, but as the lawsuit progresses she faces new internal demons.
“It had seemed so simple: a lawsuit that acknowledged how hard it was for us, and that would make things so much better. But in my haste to see the silver lining, I missed the storm clouds: the fact that accusing Piper and convincing Sean would sever those relationships.”
“You can tell yourself that you would be willing to lose everything you have in order to get something you want. But it’s a catch-22: all of those things you’re willing to lose are what make you recognizable. Lose them, and you’ve lost yourself.”
This is a heart jerker of a book for sure. Written in several points of view, directed toward the daughter Willow. It’s certainly a conversation starter, I constantly found myself going to my husband over and over again about what I was feeling as I read. I understand the attraction of money, to be able to give your child the best care possible, and insurances coverages are ridiculous, if not criminal. However could you really assure your child that you don’t wish they were never born when that is precisely what you are telling everyone else?
I found myself gravitating to the sister, Amelia, the loneliness that must come from being the sibling of a child with a disability, especially one like OI where the parents are so engrossed with keeping them safe. I don’t blame the parents, I couldn’t imagine the difficulty, but I think it is so important to make sure your other child is still shown love and affection. I struggled with this, among others.
“Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to put her fist through a mirror. She would tell everyone it was so she could see what was on the other side, but really, it was so that she wouldn’t have to look at herself. That, and because she thought she might be able to steal a piece of glass when no one was looking, and use it to carve her heart out of her chest.”
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Is it worth it if the outcome takes away everything you care about? Everything that you’re fighting for?
View all my reviews
