the tenth circle

I am in the middle of an affair with Jodi Picoult. The Tenth Circle was about her usual subject of family dynamics, blurring the lines of issues that seem black-and-white (and is the inspiration for a Lifetime movie, which never fail to please).


It wasn't my favorite Picoult because there were characters that were introduced & developed, but did not come full circle in having a purpose in the plot. I love her writing style, but I think the structure of this book was unbalanced. Dante's Inferno was constantly referenced & threaded through the novel. I loved using the circles of hell in theory (and actuality for the most part), but there were overwritten/boring bits. The Alaskan bush was used as metaphor for everything from the past, to disappearing, to simplicity, etc. I liked it because I thought it was a clean, interesting, and well-executed illusion (and I have a soft spot for Alaska):

She also incorporated graphic novels, both in allusions and in having little comic strips at the beginning of each chapter. I've never been a fan of graphic novels, but I do like it when authors weave different strands of writing within into their own. There were letters scattered in the comics to spell out the message that was to sum up the theme of the book. I found all the letters, but was to lazy to unscramble them, so I googled it:

Nothing is easier than self-deceit, for what each man wishes that he also believes to be true - Demosthenes
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