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Handle with Care

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Overview

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.

Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

Editorial Reviews

Perennial bestseller Picoult (Change of Heart) delivers another engrossing family drama, spiced with her trademark blend of medicine, law and love. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter, Willow, was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that requires Charlotte to act as full-time caregiver and has strained their emotional and financial limits. Willow's teenaged half-sister, Amelia, suffers as well, overshadowed by Willow's needs and lost in her own adolescent turmoil. When Charlotte decides to sue for wrongful birth in order to obtain a settlement to ensure Willow's future, the already strained family begins to implode. Not only is the defendant Charlotte's longtime friend, but the case requires Charlotte and Sean to claim that had they known of Willow's condition, they would have terminated the pregnancy, a statement that strikes at the core of their faith and family. Picoult individualizes the alternating voices of the narrators more believably than she has previously, and weaves in subplots to underscore the themes of hope, regret, identity and family, leading up to her signature closing twists. (Mar.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult received an A.B. in creative writing from Princeton and a master's degree in education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of fourteen novels, including The Tenth Circle, Vanishing Acts, and My Sister's Keeper, for which she received the American Library Association's Margaret Alexander Edwards Award. Recently, she penned several issues of Wonder Woman for DC Comics. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Visit her website at www.jodipicoult.com.

Customer Reviews

  • 5 stars out of 5Buy this book!!!!

    Posted March 18, 2009 by Jennifer, Morganville, New Jersey

    I have read all of Picoults books and this will be one I will recommend to all my friends to read. It was heartbreaking to read about what this little girl has to go through but also how strong she is. I couldn't put this book down from the very first page and i never wanted it to end. If you read any one of Picoult's books and enjoyed them, then this book will only wish she would hurry up and write her next one. It was wonderful!!!!

  • 5 stars out of 5Heartwrenching

    Posted March 31, 2009 by Kristin, Overseas

    This was my first e-book read on the Sony Reader. I loved how the story was set up going back and forth between the characters. The story was sad yet intriguing. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending...bittersweet I guess. I recommend this book!

  • 5 stars out of 5Rare to enjoy a book this much

    Posted April 07, 2009 by Tina, Lethbridge

    Although enjoy may not be the right word... this book infuriated me at times, and then also made me FEEL so much for the characters. When the book ended I actually missed them. Love how this story makes us question what we take for granted, and how we really can't judge someone until we've walked in their shoes.

  • 4 stars out of 5Very good, but....

    Posted April 28, 2009 by Jenneil, Sioux Falls

    I purchased this book because I know someone with Osteogensis Imperfecta, and I have a rare bone syndrome myself. I have not completed book, but have enjoyed most of what I read thus far. I like the format of the characters writing a journal to, and about the little girl.

    What I do not like, and it makes me cringe every time, is Jodi's use of old, and outdated terms to describe people with disabilities, such as "handicapped," or "wheelchair bound."
    The time lines in the novel is the early to mid-2000's, and the more appropriate terms were well into circulation. The old terms are offensive to many people with disabilities.

    Perhaps another character that I have not come across yet will "use" the more appropriate terms, such as "people with disabilities,"instead of "handicapped" or "she uses a wheelchair" instead of "wheelchair bound."

    It is a good read though, and I would, recommend the novel to others, but would, and have, informed people that she used the old terms to describe the little girl, so that they can decide if they wish to read the book.

  • 4 stars out of 5Powerful story

    Posted May 27, 2009 by jstaicsu, Fort Collins, CO

    I am a big fan of Jodi Picoult. While this isn't one of my favorite Picoult novels, I did enjoy it. It left me questioning my own opinions and beliefs and was both heart-warming and devastating. A definite recommendation for other mothers...it will raise your eyebrows and leave you wondering what you would do in Charlotte's place.

  • 3 stars out of 5A Must Read for those new to Jodi Picoult's books as

    Posted November 03, 2009 by Cheryl, Toronto

    her characters, as they grapple with contemporary issues, come to life and you will not regret reading this book. Others may find the writing formulaic and the plots predictable. This book was too similar to My Sister's Keeper to keep me fully engaged.

Additional Info

Imprint

Atria

Filesize

4.87 MB

Number of Pages

496

eBook ISBN

1439156301

Excerpt from: Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Prologue

Charlotte
February 14, 2002

Things break all the time. Glass, and dishes, and fingernails. Cars and contracts and potato chips. You can break a record, a horse, a dollar. You can break the ice. There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks and prison breaks. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Chains can be broken. So can silence, and fever.

For the last two months of my pregnancy, I made lists of these things, in the hopes that it would make your birth easier.

Promises break.

Hearts break.

On the night before you were born, I sat up in bed with something to add to my list. I rummaged in my nightstand for a pencil and paper, but Sean put his warm hand on my leg. Charlotte? he asked. Is everything okay?

Before I could answer, he pulled me into his arms, flush against him, and I fell asleep feeling safe, forgetting to write down what I had dreamed.

It wasn't until weeks later, when you were here, that I remembered what had awakened me that night: fault lines. These are the places where the earth breaks apart. These are the spots where earthquakes originate, where volcanoes are born. Or in other words: the world is crumbling under us; it's the solid ground beneath our feet that's an illusion.

* * *

You arrived during a storm that nobody had predicted. A nor'easter, the weathermen said later, a blizzard that was supposed to blow north into Canada instead of working its way into a frenzy and battering the coast of New England. The news broadcasts tossed aside their features on high school sweethearts who met up again in a nursing home and got remarried, on the celebrated history behind the candy heart, and instead began to run constant weather bulletins about the strength of the storm and the communities where ice had knocked out the power. Amelia was sitting at the kitchen table, cutting folded paper into valentines as I watched the snow blow in six-foot drifts against the glass slider. The television showed footage of cars sliding off the roads.

I squinted at the screen, at the flashing blues of the police cruiser that had pulled in behind the overturned vehicle, trying to see whether the officer in the driver's seat was Sean.

A sharp rap on the slider made me jump. "Mommy!" Amelia cried, startled, too.

I turned just in time to see a volley of hail strike a second time, creating a crack in the plate glass no bigger than my fingernail. As we watched, it spread into a web of splintered glass as big as my fist. "Daddy will fix it later," I said.

That was the moment when my water broke.

Amelia glanced down between my feet. "You had an accident."

I waddled to the phone, and when Sean didn't answer his cell, I called Dispatch. "This is Sean O'Keefe's wife," I said. "I'm in labor." The dispatcher said that he could send out an ambulance, but that it would probably take a while -- they were maxed out with motor vehicle accidents.

"That's okay," I said, remembering the long labor I'd had with your sister. "I've probably got a while."

Suddenly I doubled over with a contraction so strong that the phone fell out of my hand. I saw Amelia watching, her eyes wide. "I'm fine," I lied, smiling until my cheeks hurt. "The phone slipped." I reached for the receiver, and this time I called Piper, whom I trusted more than anyone in the world to rescue me.

"You can't be in labor," she said, even though she knew better -- she was not only my best friend but also my initial obstetrician. "The C-section's scheduled for Monday."

"I don't think the baby got the memo," I gasped, and I gritted my teeth against another contraction.

She didn't say what we were both thinking: that I could not have you naturally. "Where's Sean?"

"I...don't...kno -- -- oh, Piper!"

"Breathe," Piper said automatically, and I started to pant, ha-ha-hee-hee, the way she'd taught me. "I'll call Gianna and tell her we're on our way."

Gianna was Dr. Del Sol, the maternal-fetal-medicine OB who had stepped in just eight weeks ago at Piper's request. "We?"

"Were you planning on driving yourself?"

Fifteen minutes later, I had bribed away your sister's questions by settling her on the couch and turning on Blue's Clues. I sat next to her, wearing your father's winter coat, the only one that fit me now.

The first time I had gone into labor, I'd had a bag packed and waiting at the door. I'd had a birthing plan and a mix tape of music to play in the delivery room. I knew it would hurt, but the reward was this incredible prize: the child I'd waited months to meet. The first time I had gone into labor, I'd been so excited.

This time, I was petrified. You were safer inside me than you would be once you were out.

Just then the door burst open and Piper filled all the space with her assured voice and her bright pink parka. Her husband, Rob, trailed behind, carrying Emma, who was carrying a snowball. "Blue's Clues?" he said, settling down next to your sister. "You know, that's my absolute favorite show...after Jerry Springer."

Amelia. I hadn't even thought about who would watch her while I was at the hospital having you.

"How far apart?" Piper asked.

My contractions were coming every seven minutes. As another one rolled over me like a riptide, I grabbed the arm of the couch and counted to twenty. I focused on that crack in the glass door.

Trails of frost spiraled outward from its point of origin. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Piper sat down beside me and held my hand. "Charlotte, it's going to be okay," she promised, and because I was a fool, I believed her.