Maroon Weekly

Vanishing Acts
By: Jodi Picoult

by Lyndsay Humphrey

Most people have probably heard of Jodi Picoult through the recent movie, My Sister’s Keeper, which was a film version of one of Picoult’s most well known novels. Starred with great “A” list actors, the movie did pretty well for itself. However celebrated, this novel has made Picoult an author that people may not take very seriously but I would strongly disagree to that consensus.

While I will not write that Picoult is the modern day Hemmingway or Nabokov, her story- telling is a gift, and her writing truly does transport you into a whole different world and into the characters lives. The book that I read for this week is called Vanishing Acts. The story, like all of Picoult’s novels, displays the thoughts and emotions of each character creating a story that never has a dull moment.

Vanishing Acts is a novel that I stumbled upon over Christmas break and decided that I better fit in a good easy read before school started and it was back to Shakespeare and Donne. So I picked this novel randomly out of a large stack of books that I had stolen from my mother. This was not the first or the second or even the third novel of Picoult’s that I have read, but there continues to be something addictive in each one of her novels that keeps you coming back time and again. Vanishing Acts was no different.

The story is about a search and rescue detective named Delia. She is engaged to her daughter’s dad, a boy she has known since childhood. Delia’s life seems comparably normal to those around her, and while her job keeps her away from her daughter a lot, she seems to balance well. Delia lives with her father, who seems to be an amazing man, a supportive father and loving grandfather. The only information that we know about Delia’s mother is that she died when she was very young and that her father has raised her on his own. As we find out very soon into the novel, Delia’s father has not been honest with Delia most of her life: he has been living a double life.

Delia is under the impression that all is well in her world. She is ready to get married and become a family; she has a great career and a father that is supportive. This all changes in an instant when the police show up at Delia’s house and announce that they are there to arrest her father. Clearly this is a shock; Delia’s father is a model citizen and could never be involved in anything illegal.

I will not ruin the book, because the reason for the arrest is the most important part of the novel. I can tell you that Jodi Picoult once again grabs reader’s attention with a unique storyline that you never see coming. The story is a tangled web that the reader learns about along with each character. It is a quick read so you can just take a break from school and instead of turning on another episode of CSI you can read this book, which is far better.