Picture Perfect

The drama theme continues, but this time it is a current day story written by Jodi Picoult, boy do the RAs seem to like her stories!  If you have ever read any of my blog entries on her books, you know that I usually find her stories “over-packed” with drama.  With Picture Perfect,  Picoult was much more focused with one social issue, domestic violence.   There were no surprise endings or twists and turns as the author normally does.  The story begins when Cassie Barrett is found by a newly minted LA cop who happens to be a Native American (right off the reservation), Will Flying Horse, as she has no idea who or where she is (amnesia).  Over time her memory returns and she learns that she is the spouse of Alex Rivers, a hot trotting LA Hollywood actor, who happens to be regularly beating her.  Cassie and Alex reunite when she is brought to the police and her identity discovered.  Over the next few days she remembers the beatings and after a last beating she runs away, this time back to Will Flying Horse who brings her to his family’s home on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota.  Cassie takes the steps to leave when she learns she is pregnant by Alex and she doesn’t think that she could keep the child alive during her pregnancy.  Her disappearance makes Alex look like a potential murder as he and others have no idea where she had gone.  Cassie grows very close to Will Flying Horse and his family, learning the challenges Will has faced in his life. But, Cassie, the ever obedient wife, finally reaches out to Alex, thinking he will change when he sees he has a son.  Guess what happens?  After the child’s birth, yes of course, a son!, she reunites once again with Alex – who promises to go to rehab, counseling etc., so that she will forgive him.  One can only guess what happens with the super-ego driven husband who was emotionally abused as a child himself when the two reunite…..  Will Cassie survive another beating?  Will she actually take steps on her own?  To me, based on all of Picoult’s other works, this was a surprise ending!!!  Good finally outlasts bad.  Picoult does a nice job of developing characters and the realization that things need to change, though somewhat abruptly.  I appreciated the depth of her characters rather than a ton of issues all thrown into one story.  While she isn’t my favorite author, this one is better than the unrealistic stories I have read in the past.