Jodi Picoult's Novel, Hollow Bones: If you Want an Intense, Timely Read!
(But it may hurt a little!)
Sharing the excitement of a good book
As soon as I finished listening to Jodi Picoult's 2026, Hollow Bones, I called my daughter (also an avid reader) to tell her she should read this book. I was - as usual - overly enthusiastic about the novel I had just consumed.
"It's SOOOO relevant," I tell her. "It hits on Postpartum Psychosis AND 9/11!"
"Mom!" she groans. "Isn't that a little intense? Both those horrible things in one book?"
Hum. I am reminded there are reasons that many women of my daughter's generation prefer to read romance and fantasy. (Sarah J. Maas. Rebecca Yarros. Emily Henry. Abby Jimenez. Colleen Hoover are, after all, best-selling authors selling millions of copies.) While my daughter reads lots of different things, I recognize that my desire to delve into history, even painful history, is different than hers!
Literary Luck of Jodi Picoult
In an interview, Jodi Picoult says that the idea of using postpartum issues had been flitting around in her brain, but the impetus for the novel came from a letter addressed to her from a woman serving time in prison. She had killed her baby during a postpartum psychotic episode. The woman pleaded with Picoult to bring this problem to the attention of the general public.
So the research started.
Thirty letters and 200 pages of written experience from Solange White, the inmate who had contacted Picoult, formed the basis of much of the novel's plot. Three years later, after hours of research, writing, editing, and review, Hollow Bones was released, just eleven days after the Lindsay Clancy case's mistrial.
If you don't know, Lindsay Clancy was a Massachusetts mother of three who killed all three of her children, then tried to kill herself by jumping out of a window. She ended up partially paralyzed, on trial for infanticide. Her youngest child was eight months old, and she had tried to get help for what she knew wasn't "normal" postpartum behavior.
Jodi Picoult had absolutely no idea that one of the most visible and contested trials of the decade would coincide with the publication of her thirtieth novel, a huge stroke of what I call Literary Luck!
Not the only tragedy in Hollow Bones
While Picoult, a well-known author, had chanced upon publishing a novel about a hot-button, current topic at the same time as a highly publicized legal case, she had NOT chanced upon her choice of publishing a story built around 9/11 in the year of its 25th anniversary.
I freely admit that the days after 9/11 are counted among the saddest days of my life. I cried, pretty much continually, for nearly a week. When I watched the coverage of the 25th anniversary, read the stories, remembered the posters, and thought about the text messages sent by the dying, my heart broke again. Keep in mind that I am a Midwesterner, with no close ties to New York. I can't even imagine how hard it is for them, every single year.
But that emotional pain doesn't make me avoid a book that uses it. It was, after all, one of the most seminal events of my adult life.
Hollow Bones weaves the history of 9/11 into a powerful plot element that seems even more possible since most of us reading this book were alive when the Twin Towers fell.
Interestingly, there's a fascinating tie-in to how Picoult used a fact about 9/11 to develop the plot line, but I don't want to tell you that because I don't want to spoil anything.
Multiple Tragedies and Emergency Preparedness
The tragedy of 9/11 is not the only one in the novel, Hollow Bones. Molly, the main character, is the youngest director of Emergency Preparedness in Rhode Island, and her job provides glimpses into the art and science of preparedness and how to handle extreme emergency situations.
Never having done anything like that, I hadn't thought about how to shuffle mass casualties to different hospitals depending on the number of available beds. Not once had I contemplated how to document and account for every person who might have been on a bus, a crashed plane, or in a massive interstate pile-up. So many details to attend to when people are injured, hysterical, and lost in chaos and you're in charge!
Jodi Picoult and me
Jodi Picoult is one of two authors I read when I want a fast-paced, well-written, good story. (The other is Chris Bohjalian.) To date, Picoult has published thirty novels, and if you're an avid reader, you've probably read some of them. Her biggest novel from more than twenty years ago is My Sister's Keeper, about a "savior" sibling, conceived and born to offer blood and organs to an ill sister. One of the characters from this book reappears in Hollow Bones.
I haven't read all of Picoult's work, but I read Nineteen Minutes, and it's haunted me for years. (Along with We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver.) Nineteen Minutes deals with a school shooting, and because of its intensity, it's been banned in many schools. Recently, it was banned from all public schools Utah. Before Hollow Bones, I read By Any Other Name, a book that I thoroughly enjoyed about modern playwrights, and the whole "Did-Shakespeare-Really-Write-All-His-Own-Plays" debate!
Read this if you dare
If you are stable enough to endure the memories of one of the most painful events in American history, and are willing to learn more about how postpartum psychosis affects new mothers, don't miss Hollow Bones!
If you buy a book or product in any format that you’ve discovered through Literature Lust,
I earn a small commission on the sale. Thank you!
If you live near me in the East Central Illinois area, you can drop us a note on the Facebook Page of Silk and Spine Bookstore and Boutique in Danville, Illinois, and let us know you want a copy. We'll put one aside for you!
Buy Hollow Bones from Amazon (online retailer)
Buy Hollow Bones from Bookshop.org (supports independent bookstores)
Comments