![]() ![]() Picoult abandons her usual efforts to present an equal view of both sides of an issue-Max is a pitiful right-wing puppet Zoe, Vanessa, and their attorney are saintly-but her devoted fans will nevertheless find everything they expect: big emotion, diligent research, legal conflict, and a few twists at the end. Max's discomfort with Zoe's same-sex relationship and his desire to repay Reid and Liddy, who have their own fertility problems, mean a legal battle looms. social hot potatoes in her latest novel, including same-sex marriage, infertility. Max, meanwhile, converts to an evangelical brand of Christianity that pits him against Zoe when she asks Max for permission to use their frozen embryos. After their divorce, Max moves in with his brother and sister-in-law, Reid and Liddy, and backslides into self-destructive drinking, while Zoe devotes herself to music therapy (the book is accompanied by a CD in Zoe's voice, with awkward lyrics by Picoult) and develops a friendship with guidance counselor Vanessa that eventually turns into love and marriage. Max and Zoe's marriage, stressed by infertility problems and miscarriages, is finally destroyed by a stillborn baby. ![]() ![]() Picoult's overstuffed latest (after House Rules) is stretched just to the breaking point. ![]()
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