06.29.2009 2:08 pm
Picoult fan wary of movie, but taking tissues anyway
Post-Dispatch Book Editor
Women seem to love novels about families, even if (especially if?) someone dies. Myself, I try to avoid stories in which a kid is in mortal danger. But my colleague Amanda St. Amand has a different take. Here, she mulls over the appeal of Jodi Picoult and other women who write tearjerkers about families:
By Amanda St. AmandThe people who read Jodi Picoult’s best-selling novel, “My Sister’s Keeper” may not like the movie version.
Without being a spoiler, it shall suffice to say that many of my friends and colleagues who read the book wept at the ending. And from what I hear - I’m waiting to see the movie with my daughter later this week - many of the people who see the movie weep at the ending. But the ending in the book is very different from the ending in the movie.
I was one of the book weepers. I’ve read all of Picoult’s novels, and most of them carry a significant tissue factor (although her most recent, “Handle With Care,” just annoyed me with its preachy tone.)
Still, there are plenty of times I enjoy sad stories. I grow to like or at least empathize with the characters; their troubles feel like my troubles. Part of the attraction is her writing; Picoult creates characters who are flawed and believable. But I think a bigger part is that I enjoy a cathartic cry now and then. Better that I weep over the make-believe problems of her characters than real problems in my own life.
My husband doesn’t understand this. Whether I read or watch “Lonesome Dove,” I’m never emotionally prepared for Gus to die. It makes me sad. But sometimes, feeling sad makes me happy.
I think a lot of women feel the same way about books. Maybe not as many men. But I know there are other readers out there who have other books who do it for them. Which ones are they? “Little Women?” “Oh The Places You’ll Go?” “Gone With the Wind?” Did you mind the change in Picoult’s ending (without divulging too much)? And tell us which books make you reach for the tissue.
“Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. This book made me cry when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade.