Keeping Faith By Jodi Picoult : Fall in Love with Motherhood

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Rating: 4/5

Summary : Keeping Faith is a story about a mother named, Mariah and her daughter, Faith. Mariah catches her husband in the act of infidelity in her own house. She has a history of depression and is afraid to fall back to same trail of the past. So she asks her mother, Millie to help with Faith while she deals with her emotional setback. Her husband leaves immediately after being caught by his wife and soon files for divorce. Once divorced, he does not fight for his daughter’s custody and voluntarily signs her custody to his ex-wife. Faith,only 7 years old, understands enough to know that she can be only with her mother or her father at a time. Only a few days passed since her parents’ divorce and she started interacting with an imaginary friend, whom she calls her guide. According to her, her guide is a lady and she finds her company quite pleasant. Mariah, feeling threatened and concerned of her daughter’s well being, immediately seeks a professional’s help to get rid of her imaginary friend. To her despair, professional’s help did not provide the help she required, rather doctor gave a new name to Faith’s imaginary friend “God”. The story moved with double pace at this point and soon Mariah found her innocent kid in the midst of several miracles, including but not limited to resurrection of Mariah’s mother. Everybody considered the source of these miracles to be Faith. As if performing miracles was not bizarre enough, Faith’s palms started bleeding, which various religious people claimed to be stigmata. At this time, media, church, believers, Christians, Jews and just about everyone started gathering in front of Mariah’s house to get a glimpse of the little girl. A reality show host, Ian also arrived in front of her house to falsify her claims of interaction with God.Ian is an atheist who travels around the globe to scientifically prove the reason behind every “miracle”. He is also a very important character in the book but to know the reason which makes him important is something which I would like for readers to find out for themselves by reading this magnificently written book.

Faith’s father Colin, who is now married to Jessica, is astonished to see her little baby girl’s face in news channels. He, at this time not sure of his decision to leave Faith with her mother, sues Mariah for custody of Faith. Mariah,undoubtedly an excellent mother, is shattered on receiving the letter from court but still she decides to be strong during the course of this trial for her daughter’s sake.

Is Faith really in touch with God or its an act of desperation by a little girl to be with both her parents? If Faith is only pretending then how are miracles happening around her and how did she fake a stigmata? Is Mariah really a good mother or her past of depression catching up to her? Is Mariah forcing her daughter to pretend in order to get Colin’s attention? Will Colin win the trial and take her daughter away from Mariah? Will Colin be able to help his little girl?

What is to be expected from this book : This book has a rare combination of intelligence and emotions. Author has managed to, not only, jot down the feelings of all her characters but she has also managed to develop same feelings in her readers. Faith, miracle-worker, has not lost her innocence anywhere and is expressed exactly as a 7 year old child. Mariah’s reactions to her daughter’s strange claims of seeing God, are not far from reality. Every mother, whoever reads or hears this story, can feel her pain and her frustration. Mariah’s longing for her husband’s love and her mother’s anger towards the man who destroyed her daughter’s happiness could not have been written any better.Involvement of Christians and Jews’ religious authorities is written very beautifully. Court scene is described so realistically that reader will feel that they are in the court room and watching the scene from their eyes. At one point, I was so hypnotized by the book that I, myself, started doubting Mariah and thought that there was a possibility that she was hurting her own child to gain public attention.Whether my doubt was right or wrong, that’s for readers to find out. But the reason I brought this up, is only to point out the realistic style of author’s writing.

This book has a beautiful blend of religion, logic and love. I believe this story deserves a good read by every fiction lover.

Take away from the book: This book supports the well known phrase “Love conquers all”. There are evidences of this simple saying all over the book.

Another message is to not run away from misery. Mariah, on sensing incoming trouble from Colin, takes off. This does not help her and only weakens her case. So be brave and face your troubles with your head held high.

But above all, this book insists on having faith in your life. To lose faith means to live without a heart and soul. This significant message is written with pure elegance by Jodi.

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Keeping Faith