Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In A SPARK OF LIGHT, Jodi Picoult attempts to address the hot button divide between pro-choice and pro-life advocates in this country, specifically the Deep South. Given the current political climate in America, this could have been a provocative story in the manner of SMALL GREAT THINGS, her magnum opus on racism. Instead A SPARK OF LIGHT reads like the script of a mediocre Lifetime movie. Never afraid to confront controversy, Jodi Picoult, to my great disappointment, let me down. The Author’s Notes are far more intriguing than her fictional account of The Center, a women’s health facility in Jackson, Mississippi. Using a literary device that sometimes works, she begins with the denouement and works backward to the beginning of a pivotal day in the lives of several women and a doctor who performs abortions. The story begins when a man enters The Center and begins shooting and taking hostages. From there, Picoult goes hour-by-hour back to daybreak, introducing each character. By the time she reaches breakfast, I have repeatedly heard the same stories. George, the shooter, is a pro-life zealot who is avenging his daughter, presumably because she had difficulty during an abortion. Wren, the motherless teenage daughter of a police officer, is seeking birth control. Bex, Wren’s aunt, is her mother figure. Hugh, father of Wren, is the hostage negotiator. Izzy, a nurse, is contemplating an abortion because she, who grew up destitute, does not want to tie down her wealthy boyfriend. Olive, a lesbian neuroscientist, has an unspecified medical issue. Joy, who grew up in foster care, is pregnant as the result of an affair with a married judge. Vonita is the motherly owner of The Center. Louie Ward is the physician. Janine, a pro-life advocate, pretends to be pregnant in an effort to demonstrate that The Center advocates “killing babies”. Beth, a teenager, is lying in a hospital bed, having been charged with murder of her unborn child. Every character is a stereotype; every plot line is cliche. The reverse timeline doesn’t work for me. Over and over, the characters tell the same stories, and I became terminally bored by them, not to mention unsympathetic. Needless to say, I don’t expect resolution of this highly charged and emotional debate in one work of fiction, but I hoped that Jodi Picoult would tell a more interesting story. What a disappointment.