Vanishing Acts contains Jodi Picoult's typical complex, yet tearjerking formula. The main character, Delia, has a child out of wed-lock, with her fiance, Eric, who is both the love of her life and her best friend. Her best friend, Fitz, is also Eric's best friend, all three growing up directly next to each other. Delia's father, Andrew, works with the local senior citizen center in their small New Hampshire town. He has not only raised Delia since her mother passed away when she was four, but also became a father figure for her two, inseparable friends. Shortly into the novel, we find out that Eric's mother was an alcoholic, which he too suffers from. Fitz is a genius with words and works for a small, local newspaper and he's thoroughly head over heels in love with Delia, even though he knows her heart belongs to Eric.
After a string of strange recollections that seem more like dreams than memories, Delia recalls them to Fitz, who takes it upon himself to look into it with his journalistic ties. One thing leads to another and suddenly, Delia is standing at her front door letting the police in, who arrest her father in front of Sophie, her daughter. He is charged with kidnapping Delia at the age of four and fleeing from Arizona with her to live in New Hampshire. Eric becomes, more by association than anything, Andrew's attorney.
The novel touches upon alcoholism, child molestation, kidnapping, and a plethora of other moral actions that adults make while dealing with themselves and children. As I stated above, Ms. Picoult uses her usual suspects in this novel: an attorney suffering from some sort of underlying issue (Eric's alcoholism), a parent having to make a life-changing decision for their child that will affect the way that child grows up (Andrew taking Delia away from her alcoholic and therefore, neglectful, mother) and a close friend having to deal with their own moral decision. Just to give the dish a little flavor, she throws in child molestation, a neighborly friend with her nose stuck in the family's business who also happens to introduce them a little Hopi tradition and a long-lost mother who delves into old Mexican witchery.
I'm sure that each one of us has known, or know now, of someone who is an alcoholic, current or recovering. Unfortunately, it's one of those diseases that more people know about than should. By writing about a subject that many of us can relate, Ms. Picoult can make us more sympathetic to her plot, or rather, to Andrew's plot.
I enjoyed this novel, as I do most of Picoult's novels. I guess I need to take a short break from her novels as I know her formula so well, I can nearly guess what will happen in the end. Too much of a good thing? For now anyway...
Comments