My Sister's Keeper

Imagine that your daughter is dying. She has a rare form of leukemia for which no suitable donor is available. Imagine further that her doctor suggests the possibility that a sibling (one who is not yet born or even planned for), through a scientific process, could be “designed” to be a perfect genetic match. This is the basis for Jodi Picoult’s bestselling work of fiction, My Sister’s Keeper.

Jodi Picoult is the author of sixteen novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Change of Heart and Nineteen Minutes. In 2003, she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Picoult's novel, My Sister's Keeper, has been made into a feature film starring Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin and Abigal Breslin. The film was released to theatres nationwide on June 26, 2009.

Most of the stories of My Sister’s Keeper took place in a small town and a city in the United States. They did not put the name of the small town and city in the book.

The main characters in the story are Anna Fitzgerald, Kate Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Campbell Alexander, and Julia Romano. Anna Fitzgerald was genetically engineered by IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) . She was born to provide a genetic match for her sister. She played hockey but was not able to focus on it due to her commitment to Kate. She loved her sister Kate, and Kate loved her, but the lawsuit was tearing the family apart. Kate Fitzgerald was the sister who had got a leukemia. She and Anna were each other's best friends. She did not like being in the hospital constantly. She just wanted to have a normal life. Jesse Fitzgerald wass Anna and Kate's older brother. Throughout the book we see him as a troubled pyromaniac teen who started a series of fires, took drugs and stole cars. He got close with Anna because they both felt neglected by their parents because of Kate. Sara Fitzgerald was the mother of Anna, Kate and Jesse. She believed that she loved all three of her children, but in fact she often neglected Anna and Jesse and appeared willing to sacrifice them both to save Kate. She was a former lawyer and when Anna started the lawsuit she decided to represent herself. Brian Fitzgerald is the father of Anna, Kate and Jesse. Brian was a firefighter. He did not look care but actually he was very thoughtful. Then, Campbell Alexander was Anna's lawyer. He had a service dog named Judge, but hided the dog's purpose until near the end of the book. Campbell got into a car accident and had a seizure afterwards. The doctors told him he would have seizures in the rest of his life. He left his girlfriend, Julia, so that she would not have to deal with his condition, although he still had feelings for her. The last main character was Julia Romano. She was Anna's guardian ad litem for the trial. She wass also Campbell’s old girlfriend and there was a subplot concerning their relationship.

“My Sister’s Keeper” is a novel about a young girl, Anna, 13 years old, who sued her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant was planned in order to save her sister’s life. When Kate was only two years old, she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, known as APL (Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia). After finding this out, Kate's parents, Brian and Sara were very desperate in finding a way to cure their little girl. This is why Anna was born. Anna came into the world via in vitro fertilization, so that she would be a genetic match for her older sister Kate. When Anna was born, her cord blood was donated to her sister, but when the leukemia returned, then she had to donate blood and bone marrow. When Kate's kidneys failed, Anna was expected to donate one of her own, but she hired a lawyer to be medically emancipated from her parents and gained the right to make the decision for herself. Her lawyer, Campbell Alexander, worked for her . If she won the lawsuit, she would not have to donate. Her parents, Brian and Sara Fitzgerald, had different reactions to the suit. Brian had mixed feelings while Sara felt that Anna should donate the kidney. Sara was a lawyer turned housewife. Sara attempted to get Anna to drop the suit, but Anna refused and moved out of the house to the fire station where her father worked. After Kate's cancer diagnosis, Jesse grew up to be a troublemaker involved in alcohol, drugs, theft, and arson. One day, there was an arsonist setting fires in the area that Brian and his fellow firefighters did their work. The arsonist was revealed to be Jesse, and Brian found out the truth after finding clues. Brian confronted Jesse and learnt how badly Kate's illness had hurt him. Brian vowed to keep Jesse's arson a secret. Jesse eventually straightened himself out and became a police officer.

In another chapter, Judge DeSalvo, was a parent who lost his child in a drunk-driving accident. The guardian ad litem assigned to Anna as her representative was Julia Romano, an old girlfriend of Campbell's. Julia and Campbell met in a private high school. She was a scholarship student from a poor background while he was a rich kid. They fell in love and enjoyed a relationship until Campbell broke up with her at graduation. Julia never knew the reason but felt it was because of her social class. They met again because of Anna's case. Although they tried to be professional in this situation, their attraction to each other was obvious. Campbell had a guide dog named Judge, even though Campbell did not have disabilities. He kept the purpose of the dog a secret. Julia and Campbell spent the night together and Campbell left Julia. Feeling abandoned again, Julia was frustrated about her relationship with Campbell when he had a seizure during Anna's testimony. The purpose of the dog was to be a seizure dog. She discovered Campbell had got an epilepsy after a wreck before graduation, and he broke up with her because he did not want to be a burden. She gave him supports , and they reunited. They eventually married.

Campbell and Sara brought their witnesses and battled over. Anna was mature enough for medical emancipation. Julia, who was supposed to deliver a report about who she thought should win, was undecided. Anna, who had refused to testify, was the last witness to speak. Kate did not want Anna to go through with the transplant. She was tired of being sick, that was why Anna started the lawsuit. The judge decided for Anna and gave Campbell medical power of attorney over her. Anna and Campbell got an accident (car crash) after leaving the courthouse, and Brian was one of the rescue workers called to the scene. Despite their best efforts to save Anna, she suffered a closed-head injury and the doctor said that her brain was dead, so her parents took her life support off. Not knowing about the case, the doctor suggested organ donation. As Campbell Alexander had power of attorney for Anna, he agreed to the donation. Campbell said her kidney should go to Kate. Kate got the kidney and made a recovery, living a normal life as a dance teacher and be grateful for her sister's gift.

What makes the story interesting is that it is written from the characters point of views : the father, mother, Jesse, Anna, Anna's lawyer and Anna's guardian at litem who happened to be the lawyer's ex-girlfriend. Each chapter printed in different font, the paragraphs are grouped to several sections, and flashbacks are used heavily.

I like this book because as you read this book, you realize that Jodi Picoult does not want this book just to be another story about a hard topic. She wants you to feel like you are a part of the Fitzgerald family watching their lives unfold in front of you, and she does a beautiful job at that. You follow each character through the book, hearing their life story through them. You will laugh and cry by the Fitzgerald family. My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, and a good person. When you reach the end of the book after following Anna through her journey, you realize that there are no easy or even right answers. There is not one person who can be judged for what they think is moral or ethical. Sometimes you do not know what the right thing is but as a mother, as a doctor and even as a sibling, you do what you think is right for you and for everyone else. This book is a must read. It reminds us that being human means living every day to its fullest. Once again, Jodi Picoult makes a controversial real life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.