Picoult and the hot button issues

If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult - and I am not - you have treat coming your way in her latest book, SING YOU HOME (Atria 978-1-4391-0272-5).  Picoult's novels always have characters who aer involved  with problems and with the hot button issues of the day.  I think of Picoult's books and Oprah Winfrey's show as being similar.  This latest novel was a slow starter, but had a really fast paced and riveting ending.  I will begin by saying that originally, the characters did not charm me either.  But Picoult added characters to the plot that were strong and had great stories. The book has several social issues to cover and misses very few.  The first issue is infertility.  Zoe Baxter has been trying to get pregnant for ten years. At great monetary cost and even more psychological wear and tear on her and her husband, Max  Neither one are particularly appealing people.  Zoe is overly obsessive about being a mother and Max seems  not the brightest bulb in the box.  Max's brother and his wife are ultra religious and very successful and also childless. Zoe's mother is a new agey sort of person who is currently dabbling at being a life coach of sorts,  When the story begins, Zoe is pregnant, nearly about to have her baby and attending a baby shower when she goes into labor and loses the baby.  And then the real trouble begins. She wants to try again.  Max says no to her and yes to a divorce.  She retreats into depression and Max goes back to his alcoholic ways and buries himself in his lawn service and lives with his brother, .  Then things turn really dramatic. Zoe finally goes back to work as a music therapist and her friendship with the school counselor, Vanessa Shaw, deepens. Zoe has always felt the lack of feminine friends to talk with and be around and Vanessa is a find.Vanessa is a Lesbian and  wants Zoe to be aware of it if she care not to be around her.Although it is unplanned and unexpected, she and Zoe fall in love  And as to be expected Max does not understand.  Zoe's mother comes to terms with the situation  and helps plan a wedding for them.  Here is where the characters take over the book  and turn it into a compelling read. Max has found religion after he is in a drunken automobile crash and lets himself become a pawn for the publicity seeking fundamentalist style preacher who wants to make an example out the same sex couple who dare to be married.  It becomes a legal issue when Zoe wants to claim the fertilized eggs left from the fertility treatments and have Vanessa be the surrogate mother. Max is ready to agree until his brother and his minister talk him into letting a "sin free family"  raise the unborn child. Max's brother and the minister bring in a flamboyant and less than ethical lawyer who specializes in abortion and  and other procreative cases and he attempts to demonize Zoe and Vanessa.  He even gets the minister to make wild and false claims about the relationship of his very troubled and probably abused stepdaughter, Lucy, who is in therapy with Zoe.  The trial is a nail biter and provides an exciting, if somewhat, improbable ending,  As I  said all the current hot button issues are covered.  Infertility. Who owns the left over fertilized eggs in case of divorce.Same sex marriage.Gay and Lesbian teachers.Church and state problems.  Child abuse.  :Persecution.  Trying to force tenets of a specific religion on others,    Some of the characters were stereotypical and  complete caricatures while other were well drawn and really alive.  Some readers will actually care about what happens to the character even if the book does not tell it all. Oddly enough,
the book seemed to be set in a vacuum.  The back story was incomplete.  Where were the indignant parents earlier in the book?  What was the town like?  I really needed a bit more detail and plausibility.I admit, I am not a fan of Picoult,but I found the last part of the book riveting/  And there is a bonus.  A CD of original songs to set the background and mood.
Another caveat - the cover was hard to read from a distance and too shiny by far. I would like to know the reasoning for this cover choice.  Just curious.  Incidentally, I would like to know more about the troubled Lucy.  She could be a stand alone book.



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