Handle With Care - book review

"Handle With Care" by Jodi Picoult is one of those  books that pushes my hot buttons, a lot of my hot buttons.  The story revolves around a 6-year old girl Willow who was born with osteogenisis imperfecta, OI, or brittle bone disease.  Her body lacks the collagen necessary to produce strong, properly formed bones so that the least amount of pressure at the wrong point produces a fracture and  severe pain.  We join the family just before they discover a process available in about half the states in which parents of a child born with severe disabilities can sue for "wrongful birth".  The parents have to affirm that they were not notified soon enough of the disability and, had they known soon enough, they would have taken steps to terminate the  pregnancy.

In this book Jodi pushes Willow's mother Charlotte to such an extreme that she alienates her husband, her best friend, other OI patients and support groups, and worst of all Willow herself.  Her only reason is to get sufficient funds for Willow to have adequate treatment for her entire lifetime.  This is the first and biggest hot button for me -- if situations like Willow need the "playing field leveled" using medical malpractice as the bulldozer is legal malpractice in my opinion.  This should be a matter remedied by legislation so it is not left  up to the whims of a jury and the talent of attorneys.  I am furious that this option was not even mentioned in the book leaving the impression that suing is appropriate in these cases.

The book is done in alternating narrative form with each of the characters in turn talking to Willow and explaining things from their point of view.  This lets  us see things that a single point of view could not but gives us the intimacy you miss in a universal viewpoint.  There are baking hints and recipes strewn throughout the book that I personally found annoying.  They interrupted the flow of the plot with no redeeming virture.

The authors seemed to be trying for a satisfying if not happy ending.  I think she failed.  This was a lose-lose-lose situation.  It also demonstrated a lack of knowledge of insurance accounting and risk assessment.  Earlier in the book Willow's sister is depicted as having bulimia and some of her symptoms and manifestations didn't quite ring true.