Change of Heart

Finally finished listening to Jodi Picoult’s Change of Heart.  Can anyone really endure that much personal pain… the story begins with the death of June’s husband in a car accident that barely allows June and her daughter Elizabeth to escape.  June’s life seems back on track after she marries the policeman, Kurt, who told her the news of her husband’s tragic death. Some years later, while pregnant with the couple’s first child, June comes home to find police all around her home and both Kurt and Elizabeth are murdered, presumably by Shay Bourne, a handy man who was doing work in the house.  The trial for the murder concludes with Shay Bourne receiving the death penalty, the first in New Hampshire in over 65 years.  Now the story really begins!  Leave it to Jodi to throw her readers into a maelstrom of activity before chapter three occurs.  I am really glad that I listened to this story because of the “device” that the author uses is the voice of the main characters, June (a woman who has gone through more than one could ever hope!), Michael Wright (who served on the jury that convicted Shay Bourne AND becomes a priest – and later the spiritual advisor to the murderer), Maggie Bloom (a pip! She is the ACLU lawyer who decides she wants to save Shay Bourne), Lucius DuFrense (Shay’s next door cellmate in prison), and finally Claire Nealon (the second daughter of June who will later learn needs a heart).   There are few stories that are as intricate and connected as this one.  Everything you learn at some point in times comes back to serve a purpose.  During the trail, Michael is the hold-out in convicting Bourne but is eventually swayed to change his vote, which is a driving force in his initial guilt for helping Bourne.  Maggie begins her desire to help Bourne as it could serve as a catapult for her to receive the recognition she so desires.  Lucius, an AIDS patient in jail for killing his lover, takes a liking to Shay when he thinks he has some sort of powers after Shay “performs” some miracles in the cell.  Finally all comes together in the story when Shay sees on television that a young girl, Claire Nealon, who was born with a heart ailment, is in need of a heart.  Shay realizes he can give back to the family that has been ravaged by tragedy.  When June is contacted by Maggie and (now) Fr. Mike, she immediately refuses, but she knows that this may be the only hope for her second daughter to live.  There are so many levels of stories within stories and issues within the plot: death penalty, prisoner rights, mysticism/faith/miracles, ethics – do you take an eye for an eye?, forgiveness for your past loses, and the list goes on.  I think the author does a masterful job of weaving these together and then the shocker occurs… Shay may not have killed Elizabeth and Kurt intentionally, AHHHH… I will not divulge the secret twist in the blog as it is worth finding out.  Will Claire receive the heart?  Will the state of New Hampshire change the manner in which Shay will die to preserve the heart for Claire?  Will Maggie ever have a date?  I’d add to the list.  Was number #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list and probably deserved to be.   Listening to this one worked very well!  Enjoy.