My Sister’s Kidney

Don’t read this if you don’t want the end of the book/movie to be spoiled, pets. There, I warned you!

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite books. It’s exciting, interesting, heartbreaking and surprising. They have made several Jodi Picoult books into bad Lifetime movies, which I have watched, but My Sister’s Keeper is the first they have made into a real, honest-to-goodness, starring-some-celebrities movie.

I saw it on Tuesday night. I was not impressed. The Lifetime movies may be cheesy, but at least they get the story right.

My Sister’s Keeper (or My Sister’s Kidney as my sister likes to call it) is the story of an eleven year old girl, Anna, who wants to sue her parents for medical emancipation. Her parents had two children, Jesse and Kate, when they found out that Kate had leukemia. Their doctor suggests they have a third child, made in a test tube to be a genetic match to Kate so that they can use the cord blood against the leukemia. Since then, Anna has donated bone marrow, platelets, blood, etc to her sister in the fight against cancer. Now, Kate’s kidneys have failed and they want Anna to give her a kidney. Anna, who never would have existed if Kate wasn’t sick, resents this.

The whole thing is a delightful courtroom-style drama, as most Jodi Picoult’s are. You’re always left wondering who really is right - there never seems to be an easy answer or a side to choose. On one hand, you feel for Anna and the incredible injustice she’s been through since a young age. On the other hand, Kate will die without a kidney so you feel Anna should just give it to her. And like all of Picoult’s books there are many more layers - the lawyer’s epilepsy, the father’s Catholicism, the ethical issue of genetically engineered babies, the general dysfunction of the family.

The movie had none of these layers.

This movie was made to make you cry. Seriously, you could see when they were about to hold a long emotional shot, play some sappy music or slow down the action. And it worked. The theatre was full of women (and two men) and quite a few of them were literally sobbing. Loudly. I even had a tear in my eye, and it takes quite a lot to get me to cry in public.

But that’s all it was. A sob-fest. It wasn’t deep or meaningful. And the thing that had made me saddest in the book - the unfairness of Anna’s situation - that was hardly in it. They focused, instead, on Kate and her cancer. Without Anna’s point of view, it’s just another sob story about a kid with cancer. We’ve seen it all before.

And last but certainly not least - they got the ending wrong.

The end of the book is painful. Anna wins the court case, becomes medically emancipated from her parents. She’s in the car with her lawyer afterwards, when he has a epiletic seizure (nevermind that they don’t let epiletics drive). The car crashes and Anna is fatally injured. They take her to the hospital, where her sister is near death in the cancer ward. The lawyer tells the doctors the story, and signs the papers for them to take Anna’s kidney afterall and give it to Kate. Miraculously, Kate lives and recovers completely after this.

In the movie, however, Kate dies predictably and Anna grows up to tell the story.

I was severely disappointed with this adaptation. Abigail Breslin was good,  Sofia Vassilieva was too. Cameron Diaz was predictably annoying, but it wasn’t the acting that got me. It was the plot. I’d rather watch the Lifetime movies. Plain Truth, with Mariska Hargitay, is actually kind of good.

Lucky

There are some things that you simply cannot imagine before you’ve experienced them yourself. Your first kiss. The death of a loved one. Sex. Skydiving.

Rape.

Lucky by Alice Sebold (the other of The Lovely Bones) is her memoir of being raped in her first year of university. It talks about the incident itself and the legal proceedings afterwards, but most importantly it talks about the emotional aftermath of rape.

Alice is so badly beaten that when it first happens, no one can ignore it. Her bruises and cuts are a constant reminder. But when she heals, when she starts to look like she used to, it’s easy for everyone to think that it’s over.

The truth is that it took her over a decade to recover from her rape. And this story shows the effect it had not only on her, but on everyone in her life. Because things don’t just go back to normal when the skin heals. Because some things are irrevocable. She continuously refers to it as her old life and her new one, because there is such a huge divide between the two.

This book is a remarkable insight into the life of a “survivor” of rape. It’s horrible and beautiful at the same time. It’s almost painful to read sometimes because it’s so real, so raw.

“It was an early nuance of a realization that would take years to face. I share my life not with the girls and boys I grew up with, or the students I went to Syracuse with, or even the friends and people I’ve known since. I share my life with my rapist. He is the husband to my fate.”

“No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved.”

It was a moving book, a true insight into the issue of rape, something that you really can’t imagine until you’ve been through it. And I hope that this is as familiar as I ever get with rape.

Reading Rainbow Revisted

Last June 26 I made a vow to try to read 50 books in a year. Shortly after, I also vowed to write about each book I read, at least a little.

I have read 33.

I really thought I would be able to do the 50, but I blame the fact that both my Christmas and summer holidays were cut short by studying for Canadian History. At the same time, I think 33 is still pretty impressive. And I did keep my second promise (oh yeah, the last two books I read were Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead both by Charlaine Harris from the Sookie Stackhouse series and they were wonderfully addictive.) If you want to know all the books I read and what I thought of them, check out the 50 Books in a Year page.

And now, I’m going to attempt it all over again. This is Reading Rainbow Take Two! 50 books by June 26, 2010. This time I’ll make it. There are no rules, other then they have to be books I haven’t read before.

I’m a big reader, I used to read mainly fantasy and historical fiction, but I’ve since developed a love for any kind of fiction and even the occasional non-fiction. This is the “books” section of my Facebook profile:

I would highly recommend any of those books, but for now I bring you my Top Ten Books So Far!

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This book is for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. In fact, this is our generation’s L’étranger (Camus.) A classic from the first day of it’s release, Perks of Being a Wallflower has a habit of defining our generation. Almost everyone I know has read this book and been changed by it. I’ve read it at least four times. It’s about being alone and together, about discovering yourself and others, and it’s about feeling infinite. It’s beautiful.

9.  Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

If you’ve ever read this blog before, you know I love modern retellings of myths. Any myths, but especially Greek myths. The premise of this book is that the Greek gods are still alive, living all together in a house in London. It’s absolutely hilarious and very accurate, even! This is the book I wish I had written.

8. Lord of Two Lands by Judith Tarr

This is the book that spawned my love for Alex. Yes, Alex as in Alexander the Great. This was the second Judith Tarr book I read, after Throne of Isis. Judith Tarr is, in my opinion, one of the best historical fiction writers out there. I read this book when I was in middle school, and I was definitely too  young for it. I didn’t even figure out Alex was gay until about halfway in. There was a passage about Alexander and Hephaestion that started with “Quiet as they were after love…” and I stared at it for a very long time before I finally realized it. When I reread the book a couple of years later, the older, wiser me was appauled that I had read it at the tender age of 13. It still remains one of my favourite books of all time. I’ve read it three times.

7. The Pact by Jodi Picoult

I have read nearly every Jodi Picoult book that exists. Okay, it’s chick lit. But it’s good chick lit. It’s thoughtful and complex and most of all, it’s moving. Jodi Picoult has a way of getting to me like no one else. The first of her books that I read was My Sister’s Keeper (movie out this weekend, I’ll review it when I see!) I bought it on a whim when I was visiting Fae one summer, it was on sale. I was reading it on the train ride to meet my parents in State College. The train broke down for five hours (ew) but I finished the book. I tried not to cry in public, but it was hard. I chose The Pact, though, instead, because it’s the one that upset me the most. After reading The Pact, I cried for two days straight. For no reason other than the book. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking, and I adore Jodi Picoult for being able to create that kind of intense emotion.

6. Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

I love Canadian literature. A lot of my favourite authors are Canadian. I think it’s a highly underestimated genre. I read Anil’s Ghost in Grade 12 high school English class, as a study of Can Lit and postmodernism. Anil’s Ghost remains my ultimate example of postmodernism. This book is beautiful. It’s a complex web of scenes and thoughts and styles. A lot of people don’t like it because it’s not at all linear, but that’s the reason I love it so much. It’s like a puzzle.

5. Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith

This is the first on the list from the Canongate Myth Series. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s my favourite collection of books. The publishing company Canongate approached a number of well known authors from various different genres with the idea of writing a book that’s a retelling of a myth. Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad is probably the famous popular, but I’ve read almost all of them and most of them are good. The myth that Ali Smith adapts is Iphis and Ianthe, one of my favourites. I’ll tell it on some Mythology Monday, but I don’t think I can do it as well as Ali Smith does. This book is pure poetry. It’s beautiful, from beginning to end. You fall in love with the characters, with the story.

4. Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett

One of the books I read this year. It overwhelmed me. It’s wonderful. You can read what I wrote about it last month here!

3. 1984 by George Orwell

I went on a big kick one summer of reading all of the modern classics. I read Of Mice and Men, Great Gatsby, On the Road, etc. And 1984. I have always had a soft spot for dystopia sci-fi, and 1984 was definitely my kind of book. I think above all 1984 is a really important book. Today, and in 2084, 2184, etc. It really changes the way you think about things. It’s one of those books that I find myself randomly thinking about sometimes.

2. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Breakfast of Champions was the book that Kurt Vonnegut wrote for his 50th birthday. And so when my dad turned 50 he told me he wanted a copy. I obliged, and then I read it after him. The first time I read it was when I was 16. I adored it. It was the first Vonnegut book I read, and he’s one of my favourite authors. His style is so unique. Funny and poignant. I read the book a second time when we studied it in my 20th Century Lit class in first year. Let me tell you, analyzing the concept of wide open beavers (with drawings by Vonnegut himself!) makes a three hour class very interesting!

1. Weight by Jeanette Winterson

My favourite of the Canongate Myth series and my favourite book of all time (so far) is Weight. If you’ve been reading this blog a while, you may have caught on to my love of Jeanette Winterson. This book is a retelling of the Atlas and Heracles story, and it’s beautiful. It’s one of those books I read where I thought afterwards “Of course this book exists.” It was so… perfect. I wish I could write like that. Since I’m going to be in the UK in September, I may stalk Jeanette Winterson so that maybe her genius will rub off on me a little…

Blood lust

There’s a fine, fine line between pain and pleasure.

It seems these days that the world has caught a case of blood lust. Vampires have long been part of pop culture, through the Victorian era until now, but even before then they were legends. And what draws us to vampires, of all mythical creatures?

Sex.

Vampires and sex are synonymous. There is no such thing as a chaste vampire. And more importantly for us mortals, there is no such thing as an ugly vampire. You’d think something that had been dead for centuries would be less than appealing. After all, vampires are monsters, wild. And all other mythical monsters - werewolves, cyclopses, harpies - are scary. Vampires are scary in a sexy way. Nevermind scaring your socks off, they seem to jump straight to the pants.

In Interview with a Vampire we lusted after Lestat and Louis. In Buffy, teens all around the world dreamt about Angel and Spike. And now, with Twilight-mania, a new generation is literally asking for Edward to bite them.

I’ll admit, I read Twilight. In fact, I read all four. And I saw the movie twice in theatres. Why? Because vampires are hot.

And finally, last September, HBO gave us True Blood: a show chalk full of sex, drugs, blood and most importantly - vampires. But True Blood wasn’t jumping on the bandwagon (or careening race car) of Twilight, as it may have seemed. True Blood is based on books by Charlaine Harris, the first, Dead Until Dark, published in 2001. Which bears remarkable similarities to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, published years later. Sookie Stackhouse is a mind reader, drawn to vampire Bill Compton because she can’t read his thoughts. Edward Cullen is a mind reading vampire, drawn to Bella Swan because he can’t read her thoughts. Edward is a “vegetarian” vampire. Bill is “mainstreaming” after the release of synthetic blood.

You see, this is a key factor to the sexy vampire stories. We don’t want a monster story, we want a story of redemption. Angel is “cursed” with a soul, and so we (and Buffy) fall in love with his tortured past. Edward wonders if he has a soul, and wants desperately to be a decent person, a normal high school student. Bill moves to a small town in the American south in an attempt to rejoin society. Louis is the sympathetic character, who feels guilt at the deaths he has caused. Lestat is the monster.

Last weekend I read Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark, and it was everything I hoped it would be - a grown up version of Twilight. Without the sexual frustration, but in the same fluffy first person style. A romance novel, almost, with vampires and murder mysteries.

Yesterday, I watched the first episode of the second season of True Blood. The show is a lot “classier” than the books - Allan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) adds a level of sophistication and danger to the books to make it into this enticing, sexy show. In true HBO grandeur.

Vampires are sexy, folks. And they’re also really popular right now. And if you have a problem with that, you can bite me.

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a play. In fact, I think the last play I read was Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead in 20th Century English, three years ago. My experience with theatre and reading plays always comes from my sister, because I see all of her plays, or from a class at school. It’s not that I don’t like plays, I actually really do. That’s the problem. It’s more like TV or movies for me - I’m not at all critical because I don’t know enough about it. And I tend to be happy if I’m just amused for a couple of hours.

I should change that actually, to “modern plays and theatre” because I read a lot of Classical plays - Aeschylus, Euripides, Seneca, etc. And even write essays about them.

So I decided for my 50 books I should try a little bit of theatre. I’d always wanted to read Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie Macdonald. She’s a pretty famous Canadian author and the play is very popular in university English classes here. I’ve been meaning to read some of her work forever, since she’s one of my sister’s favourite authors and I’ve hear that her novels are fantastic.

I think I liked the idea of this play better than I actually liked the play. The premise is a doctoral student at Queen’s University who gets sucked into Othello and Romeo and Juliet in order to prove her thesis. It’s interesting. It made me want to read more Shakespeare (I’ve never read Othello), but it wasn’t anything astounding. It was very Canadian, though, which was fun. She added in a lot of colloquialisms and fun references which we Canaians aren’t used to getting in literature.

I don’t have any quotes that I pulled out really. And that’s pretty much all I have to say. Except that I think the title is beautiful. That may or may not be a major reason I read it.