In My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult weaves a gripping tale of pathos, humor, and
love. ... apart from her sister Kate, Picoult exposes the universal truths of human.
Book Club Discussion Guide About the Book
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
In My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult weaves a gripping tale of pathos, humor, and love. As thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald struggles to define herself as a person apart from her sister Kate, Picoult exposes the universal truths of human relationships. Life is full of choices and consequences. Love demands risks and sacrifice; self-examination and sharing. As the characters unfold, in their own words, the importance of communication emerges as a unifying theme. Kate Fitzgerald is dying of acute promyelocytic leukemia. A kidney transplant is her only hope. Anna’s parents assume without question, that she will offer her kidney. Aware that she was conceived to be a genetic match, and ongoing donor for Kate, Anna wants a chance to live her own life. Though she loves her sister dearly, Anna retains Campbell Alexander, seeking medical emancipation, knowing that without the surgery Kate will die. Thus begins the saga of seven lives intertwined in ways none could ever have imagined. Anna forces a legal confrontation that compels each character to examine the relationships in their lives. Sara Fitzgerald has focused obsessively on Kate’s medical needs, unwittingly ignoring the needs of other family members. Brian, a firefighter, finds respite from his family’s ills on the job, and in the stars, which become a metaphor for life. Jesse, eighteen, is the family misfit. Unable to help Kate, he is wracked by guilt. A rebel, he becomes an unlikely healing force. As the court proceedings swirl
around Anna, all involved are forced to reckon with the ghosts of their pasts and the paths they have chosen. Picoult addresses the ethics of the situation only tangentially. The ending is superbly crafted, literally pulling the reader into the text. This is a cosmic tale about relationships and endurance, and the ability of love to change lives forever.
About the Author
Jodi Lynn Picoult (born May 19, 1966) is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide. Picoult was born and raised in Nesconset on Long Island; her family moved to New Hampshire when she was 13 years old. She has described her family as "non-practicing Jewish". Picoult wrote her first story at age 5, entitled "The Lobster Which Misunderstood". She studied writing at Princeton University, and graduated in 1987. She published two short stories in Seventeen magazine while still in college. Immediately after graduation, she began a variety of jobs, ranging from editing textbooks to teaching eighth-grade English. She earned a master's degree in education from Harvard University.
Discussion Questions 1. Reread the prologue to My Sister's Keeper. Who is speaking? Is that who you thought was speaking the first time you read it? 2. My Sister's Keeper is told from many different viewpoints. Why do you think Jodi Picoult wrote it this way? How did hearing from each character change your opinions of them and of the situation? 3. Do you think Sara is a good mother? Do you sympathize with her? How does her martyrdom affect the rest of the family? 4. Discuss the consequences of the trial other than the ruling. In what ways does it force people to deal with issues in their relationships? Sara and Brian? Anna and her parents? Julia and Campbell? 5. Why does Jesse burn things? Is Jesse the opposite of his firefighter father or are they similar? In what ways? 6. Discuss the ways each family member copes with their situation. How are each of their identities affected by Kate? How does this affect Kate? 7. Why did Kate ask Anna to sue for medical emancipation? Was Anna right to listen to her wishes? 8. Do you think it is ethical to have a "designer baby" like Anna was? 9. The epilogue talks about how the family moved on. How did they grieve? How did they survive? In what ways did Anna give life back to all of them, not just Kate?
