This book, as usual Picoult, alternates between different views and periods in time. In this case, the story is told by Paige (in the first person) and by her husband, Nicholas’s point of view, but in the third person. Since Paige’s parts are told in the first person and Nicolai’s in the third, I personally felt a lot closer to Paige’s character. I also don’t particularly like Nicholas, and I’ll get to why in just a minute.
Meaning Paige has some demons to overcome in her past. And when he was five, his mother disappeared. Only begotten, he rose from his father. 18 called, she had an abortion. Then he was led to a break with his girlfriend and, worried that his father would find her in some secret way, he wanted to. rather than waiting a few months until he left for college. I had a really hard time understanding it. She had been accepted by the Rhode Island School of Design and wanted to study art. His interest doesn’t really seem to be failing, and he didn’t even think to doubt college. So she had an abortion because she was ready to handle motherhood and she wanted to go to college, but then she didn’t go to college. She moved to Massachusetts (from Chicago) and got a job in a diner, where she worked as a waitress, but also took pictures of customers. She was very good at drawing, and even had the ability to include things about the person in the drawing that she had no real way of knowing, as if the person she was drawing was looking into her subconscious.
Paige meets Nicholas for lunch. The privilege of his life. He and Paige barely knew each other when he asked her to marry him. They took a wife and a few years later had a kid, who basically broke up with Paige life. She is quickly overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood, and Nicholas is not at all understanding. It doesn’t help at all. In fairness, I worked very long hours as a heart surgeon, so I don’t have much time to help , but his lack of understanding was mostly why I didn’t love him. She didn’t realize that while she had a few breakouts, Paige didn’t get any breaks because being a mom is a 24/7 job. He was playing when he was a little baby (maybe) and he thought it was easy and why was Paige New so much?
Anyway, Paige finally couldn’t take it anymore and ran. I think that post-partum major depression was a likely factor. He searches for his mother and tries to deal with the past. he finds his mother and spends some time with her. In the process, he learns more about himself and his motivations. Meanwhile, Nicholas learns that raising a baby is not so easy. He ends up asking his parents for extraneous help. Paige eventually returns, but Nicholas, understandably angry at her for leaving, is not particularly inclined to forgive. Even if someone was mad about him, I thought he was mostly ignored, but maybe that’s why I don’t like him in the first place. Interestingly, his parents are more intelligent, especially his mother. The mother, while not leaving the family, had a more difficult search for her own identity, so she sympathized more than Nicholas Paige.
Do not sin against me; I don’t think it’s really right for Paige to leave her baby like that. I don’t understand how it could be. But I guess I really believe that he just couldn’t take it anymore and didn’t see any other way out. He also believed that the mother was bad and that his child would be better off without her. It wasn’t true, of course, but I believe he really believed it.
it is fair to say that the book is really sticky. It brought out emotions in me – anger towards Nicholas, for example, and the same with Paige. I don’t know why I identify with her when my life isn’t like hers (I’m the only one with any kids), but I believe I can relate to sometimes feeling overwhelmed by life. But the question of one’s own identity is almost a universal theme.
