Book Review: Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

Jane, married to a biologist who is more passionate about humpback whales than her and her 15 year old daughter, decides to run away from home after another argument with her husband. Her brother, whom she had always protected as a child, takes her and her daughter on a hunt for the answers around the country in the hope that she can see reason and sense through the past into her life. Her husband on the other hand, follows them, and in the process comes to a self-discovery of his previous behaviors and how much he would give to get his wife back.

The storyline, when told as such, seems un-forgivingly lame. However, Jodi Picoult's art in storytelling created another bestseller out of this everyday storyline.

The story was told from different people's points of view. The storyline jumps all over the place. The book begins somewhere into the story, and each chapter seem to jump backwards and forwards in time, leaving the reader pondering the meaning and then suddenly rediscovering the connection before sinking back down again with another riddle like plot. Knowing that someone has died in one chapter followed immediately with a chapter where this person is still very much alive and kicking is an interesting way to follow the going ons. Perhaps the mix ups are meant to allow the readers to step into Jane's shoes, on how she is rediscovering her life as well as her emotions for those around her. Perhaps it is just the way Jodi wanted to tell the story - so you won't want to skip ahead and cheat to the end of the book.

Reading the story through each character's eyes allows the reader to be the outsider. We the reader know what's going on, we the reader want to tell the characters what to do, yet Jodi keeps us at bay by frustrating us with interesting character developments, and their self-discoveries always lead us to another event or another crisis. It's like watching a motion picture, with every scene flashing in front of our eyes, each character moving along their own lives' paths and we watch them grow and learn until in the end, when it is all finally pierced together, do we realize how much we wanted a happy ending.

A book worth reading.