by Jodi Picoult
SPUN SUGAR
Cooking spray
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon corn syrup
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, wiping any excess off with a paper towel.
Place the sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, until a candy thermometer registers 310 degrees F (hard-crack stage). Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Let the syrup stand to thicken, about 1 minute.
Dip a fork into the sugar syrup and wave it back and forth over the baking sheet to paint long threads. The syrup will begin hardening almost immediately. With practice you can form the strands into lace, swirls, the letters of your name.
To serve, spoon some of the sabayon sauce into a shallow bowl or onto a large plate and top with 2 poached meringues. Gently place a few threads of spun sugar around the meringue, not on top, or it will deflate.
The outcome of this recipe is a work of art, if you can make it through the complicated preparation. Above all else: handle everything with care. This dessert, like you, is gone before you know it. This dessert, like you, is impossibly sweet.
This dessert fills me, when I miss you the most.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Willow's trivia came, in part, from The Book of Useless Information, edited by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (New York: Perigee, 2006).
If you'd like to learn more about osteogenesis imperfecta or to make a donation, please visit www.oif.org.
Handle with Care
READING GUIDE
When Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter, Willow, is born with severe Osteogenesis Imperfecta, they are devastated - she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow's medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her obstetrician for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in court and say publicly that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she'd known about the disability in advance - words that her husband can't abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the obstetrician she's suing isn't just her doctor - it's her best friend . . .
Jodi Picoult, 42, is the bestselling author of sixteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale, Harvesting the Heart, Picture Perfect, Mercy, The Pact, Keeping Faith, Plain Truth, Salem Falls, Perfect Match, Second Glance, My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart and Handle with Care.
Since studying creative writing at Princeton, Picoult has worked as a technical writer for a Wall Street broker, a copywriter at an ad agency, an editor at a textbook publisher, an English teacher and - most recently - as the author of five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book series. Her novels are translated into forty languages in forty countries. Three have been made into television movies and My Sister's Keeper is currently in development at New Line Cinema, with Nick Cassavetes directing and Cameron Diaz starring, and is coming out in cinemas in June 2009.
Jodi Picoult and her husband Tim Van Leer live in New Hampshire with their three children, three springer spaniels, two donkeys, two geese, three ducks, six chickens, and the occasional cow.
Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is a rare genetic disorder characterised by fragile bones that break easily. It is also known as brittle bone disease or, colloquially, glass-bone disease. Incidence of OI is estimated at one in 10,000 to 15,000, although mild forms of the disease often go undiagnosed. OI occurs in men and women of all races and currently affects about half a million people worldwide. The Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation estimates that at least 3,900 Britons and somewhere between 25,000-50,000 Americans have OI. Although the term Osteogenesis Imperfecta dates back to about 1895, there is evidence that it has affected people for millennia. Signs of OI have been recognised in an Egyptian mummy dating from 1000 BC and it has also been identified as the medical condition suffered by Ivan the Boneless who lived in ninth-century Denmark. Prince Ivan, according to legend, was carried into battle on a shield because he was unable to walk on his soft legs. More recently, it is thought that the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec may have had undiagnosed OI or a similar condition. Today, famous OI sufferers include the actors Michael J. Anderson, Nabil Shaban and Julie Fernandez, best known as Brenda, her award-winning role in the BBC comedy The Office.
Wrongful Birth is the term for a medical malpractice claim brought by the parents of a child born with birth defects, alleging that negligent treatment or advice deprived them of the opportunity to avoid conception or terminate a pregnancy. Originating in the United States, most wrongful birth suits had little chance of succeeding before the decriminalisation of abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. In 1966 the first significant wrongful-birth lawsuit involving a disabled child reached the New Jersey Supreme Court. The court recognised the medics' failure but still ruled in favour of the defendants on the grounds that 'a court cannot say what defects should prevent an embryo from being allowed life... We are not talking here about the breeding of prize cattle.' By 1978, however, when the next significant wrongful-birth case was decided by a higher court, the New York State Court of Appeals found in favour of the family, declaring it had the right to seek financial damages for the added cost of raising a child with a disability, although not for emotional damages. Since the mid-1970s more than twenty U.S. states - and many European countries, including France and Britain - have recognised wrongful birth actions. This booming and highly controversial branch of law and bioethics has grown - and will continue to grow - commensurately with advances in prenatal testing and reproductive genetics.
'I want to sue... I want to go after someone at Disney World, someone at the hospital... I want people's jobs, and I want money out of this to make up for the hell we went through' (p.52).
To what extent do Sean and Charlotte's motivations to sue coincide? Did you sympathise with them? What does this novel have to say about America's notoriously litigious culture? Are there any incidences in the book that highlight its downside?
As with many of Picoult's previous novels Handle with Care is written from the perspective of several different characters, each taking turns to narrate a chapter. Why do you think Jodi Picoult favours this narrative device, considering the nature of her stories? Is it a successful technique?
'Every time I think my life sucks, I look at you and hate myself even more for thinking my life sucks' (p.23).
What is at the root of Amelia's problems? Why is she so angry? Are Sean and Charlotte to blame? Is Willow?
Life is an uphill battle for the O'Keefe family. Who is there to protect their best interests? How are the authorities - police, doctors, law courts - portrayed in the novel?
'Oh, Sean. You're the best father. But... you're not a mother'
(p.101)
What does Charlotte mean by this? Is there something sacred about motherhood? Who is a 'good parent' in Handle with Care? Who is a 'bad parent'? Is there a valid distinction between the two?
What does Marin and her adoption story bring to the novel? What do she and Willow have in common, if anything?
In her acknowledgments Jodi Picoult states that, 'I've slightly amended the way juries are picked in New Hampshire - it's not by individual, as I've written, but it's a lot more interesting to read that way!'
Handle with Care is full of true-to-life detail but does Picoult's deviation from the realm of facts in this instance matter? What is more important, the issues or the story? How do you think you would have voted if you were on Charlotte and Piper's jury? Is Piper guilty of misconduct? Is justice done for the O'Keefes? Do you think Piper owes Charlotte the apology that she gives on p.466?
Jodi Picoult has written that 'my objective as a n
ovelist is to take you for a breathless ride, and to make you rethink what you believe, and why'.
Does she succeed with this book? Did Handle with Care challenge your views on medical ethics, abortion, disability, parenthood or anything else? If so, how?
Many of Picoult's novels centre around a court case or legal dispute. Why, do you think? What does the legal contention at the heart of Handle with Care lend to the book? How might it be different without it?
How does the breaking and healing of Willow's bones reflect other goings-on in the novel? What else breaks and heals? Is it a useful analogy?
Why do you think the novel is written in the second person, where the various characters address Willow as 'you'? Did the technique make you feel more engaged with, or more suspicious of, the various accounts? Did it give you an inkling of how the book might end?
What is the role of baking in the book? What does it represent, particularly for Charlotte? Did you enjoy the inclusion of Charlotte's recipes?
How does life change for the O'Keefe family after the court case? Willow perceives that 'checks didn't do you any good unless they were deposited' (p.471), but do they? And have the family learned something from their ordeal? If so, what?
'There were lies we told to save ourselves, and then there were lies we told to rescue others. What counted more, the mistruth, or the greater good?' (p.320).
Do you agree with Charlotte's distinction? What type of lies - or omissions of the truth - are there in the novel and what is their effect on the characters' lives?
Sean accuses Charlotte of being 'conveniently Catholic, when it suits you' (p.295). Do you agree with him? What is the role of religion in the novel? Does it help clarify or further cloud the ethical questions raised? How would you describe Charlotte's spirituality in the book's final pages?
'The world would be a much easier place if... we just said what we really meant. Words got in the way' (p.396). What does Amelia mean by this? Who in the novel has trouble communicating their true feelings? How can words and phrases draw people away from the truth? What effect does poor or disingenuous communication have on the characters' lives and relationships?
If you have read any of Jodi Picoult's previous books, did you identify any common or recurrent themes and stylistic traits in Handle with Care?
'Being different isn't a death sentence but a call to arms' (p.410). What did you make of Charlotte's attitude towards Willow's OI? How does it differ to Willow's attitude? What does this novel have to say about disability and how it is perceived and treated in the West?
What does Handle with Care have to say about friendship?
'I can't figure out why a kid who's got two parents that love her, and a roof over her head, and a pretty damn good life would hate herself enough to do any of that' (p.427).
How well do Sean and Charlotte really know Amelia? Does Handle with Care offer a valuable insight into the teenage mind and how it can be misinterpreted?
Why do you think Jodi Picoult included the final chapter narrated by Willow? Is it merely a thrilling plot twist, or does it contribute to the novel's moral tangle? Did it make you re-evaluate what had come before? If so, how and why?