Wish You Were Here
Diana O’Toole, an associate specialist for Sotheby’s auction house, has her perfect life in NYC with surgical resident, Finn, mapped out - all that’s missing is the proposal and wedding, and she’s pretty sure she’s about to get the former on their romantic vacation to the Galapagos. When the initial wave of COVID hits and Finn is needed at the hospital, Diana goes solo and finds herself trapped longer than expected by travel restrictions. What she discovers during and after this extended vacation opens her eyes and makes her re-evaluate the future she’s envisioned.
I’ve learned something about myself after finishing this book:
I think I’m broken. Looking around at all my friends’ glowing reviews for this, I have to wonder why I didn’t feel those things too.
Let me start with some things Jodi Picoult did so well in this book, though, because she deserves credit where it’s due:
First: This woman researched the hell out of the major aspects of COVID-19 from transmission to its after effects and it SHOWS. Many won’t be ready for such an unflinching, no-holds-barred look at this virus, but if you ever feel ready to look at it more closely in the relative safety of a fictionalized story, this is your book. It’s difficult and sobering at times, but it’s also terribly insightful and honest, and I can respect that. I learned a lot that I didn’t know, and I think it’s a tremendous learning opportunity for those who want it.
Second: She writes very well. Structure, plot, fully-developed characters, pacing, atmosphere, the big twist, which was so clever … it’s all there. It’s perfectly good fiction, and it will appeal to many readers, as evidenced by all those aforementioned glowing reviews.
So why didn’t it work as well for me?
First: The story felt forced. COVID-19 was really the body of the book, so to speak, and Diana’s story was just the clothing thrown on to disguise it. Picoult had all this knowledge about the virus to share, but it felt much better suited for a non-fiction book. Finn’s emails to Diana were just woefully unrealistic to me. Not the details of the names of medicines, machines and interventions used on patients - that was highly realistic, but given their circumstances of being separated for so long, it didn’t feel like this is what he’d be spending all his time writing the love of his life about.
Second: Despite the reasoning for Diana’s decision-making and conclusions, I couldn’t get on board with it. I can’t really discuss it for spoiler reasons, but it didn’t ring true to me, and I really didn't like the ending. She just didn't make sense to me.
Third: The first half of the book was - there’s no way to put this politely - kind of boring. Maybe that was intentional on the author’s part to put the reader back in the mindset of the early days of the pandemic when everything was shut down and we were spending our days struggling to find things to do, but this reader wasn’t ready to revisit those days and how the world felt then.
As I said, it’s a well-written book with an abundance of 4 and 5-star reviews, so I encourage you to read some of those before deciding whether the book is for you. It’s simply a case of right book, wrong reader for me.
★★★ ½
I’ve learned something about myself after finishing this book:
I think I’m broken. Looking around at all my friends’ glowing reviews for this, I have to wonder why I didn’t feel those things too.
Let me start with some things Jodi Picoult did so well in this book, though, because she deserves credit where it’s due:
First: This woman researched the hell out of the major aspects of COVID-19 from transmission to its after effects and it SHOWS. Many won’t be ready for such an unflinching, no-holds-barred look at this virus, but if you ever feel ready to look at it more closely in the relative safety of a fictionalized story, this is your book. It’s difficult and sobering at times, but it’s also terribly insightful and honest, and I can respect that. I learned a lot that I didn’t know, and I think it’s a tremendous learning opportunity for those who want it.
Second: She writes very well. Structure, plot, fully-developed characters, pacing, atmosphere, the big twist, which was so clever … it’s all there. It’s perfectly good fiction, and it will appeal to many readers, as evidenced by all those aforementioned glowing reviews.
So why didn’t it work as well for me?
First: The story felt forced. COVID-19 was really the body of the book, so to speak, and Diana’s story was just the clothing thrown on to disguise it. Picoult had all this knowledge about the virus to share, but it felt much better suited for a non-fiction book. Finn’s emails to Diana were just woefully unrealistic to me. Not the details of the names of medicines, machines and interventions used on patients - that was highly realistic, but given their circumstances of being separated for so long, it didn’t feel like this is what he’d be spending all his time writing the love of his life about.
Second: Despite the reasoning for Diana’s decision-making and conclusions, I couldn’t get on board with it. I can’t really discuss it for spoiler reasons, but it didn’t ring true to me, and I really didn't like the ending. She just didn't make sense to me.
Third: The first half of the book was - there’s no way to put this politely - kind of boring. Maybe that was intentional on the author’s part to put the reader back in the mindset of the early days of the pandemic when everything was shut down and we were spending our days struggling to find things to do, but this reader wasn’t ready to revisit those days and how the world felt then.
As I said, it’s a well-written book with an abundance of 4 and 5-star reviews, so I encourage you to read some of those before deciding whether the book is for you. It’s simply a case of right book, wrong reader for me.
★★★ ½
Finn's "e-mails" weren't really as it turns out - they were the things he said when he visited her that her subconscious picked up on and turned into emails in his story, so they make sense in that context.
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