The Tenth Circle: A Novel
by Jodi Picoult
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jodi PicoultEdition: Paperback
Published: 2006-10-24
ISBN: 074349671X
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Book Reviews of The Tenth Circle: A Novel
Book Review: Sorry, Not a Rape-- SPOILER ALERT
Summary: 2 Stars
SPOILER ALERT
There's a lot of problems with this book. The biggest one, to me, is that puts the credibility of any woman who says that they've been raped into question. I can't imagine reading this book as a real rape victim, and thinking that I should have sympathy for the main character, 14 year old Trixie.
It's nearly impossible to care about Trixie after you find out what she did-- from lying to her parents about being a virgin before the incident after having sex dozens of times, from actually BUYING the ketamine (which was found in her system and sealed the case against the ex-boyfriend Jason), to never actually saying "No" when having sex with Jason. One thing that we all need to understand is that we can't expect anyone, boyfriends, partners, husbands, teachers, to be mind-readers. To other females out there-- if you don't want to do something, from kissing to having sex to doing the dishes, you need to SAY IT.
To me, Trixie was trying to take what was a bad emotional/sexual experience (realizing that the man she loved didn't love her, having painful sex) and turning it into a crisis. Instead of examining her choices, and thinking to herself, "well, that was awful, I'll never do that again--[fill in the blank-- let someone use me, equate sex with love, get trashed and come onto a guy without really thinking if I want to be physical with him, buy drugs] she construes the one incident as ruining her, believes that she is tarnished, that her world is now divided into "before rape" and "after rape."
This girl needed to read some Camille Paglia, get over herself, realize she did a dumb thing and she would never do it again, and not think that a terrible night where some bad things happened should define her life from that moment on.
Two things that really bothered me were that 1. Trixie didn't tell anyone that she had bought the ketamine, and was going to let the ex-boyfriend take the fall (and get tried as an adult). What cowardice. 2. That she didn't tell the police (or at least her PARENTS) what really happened-- that she never once said no to sex that night with Jason, and she couldn't even show physically that she didn't want to have sex because of the ketamine (which, again, SHE BOUGHT). Basically, she was going to allow someone else to go to jail to save her own reputation. Sorry, sister, that doesn't fly. All women were 14 years old once, but I doubt many of us would be that selfish.
On a good note, I thought the father Daniel Stone was a well-developed, interesting character and I loved the sequences in the Alaskan bush. Picoult is obviously a good writer. Too bad the main female character in this was such a drag.
Summary of The Tenth Circle: A Novel
Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence. Woven throughout the novel are a series of dramatic illustrations that pay homage to the family's patriarch (comic book artist Daniel Stone), and add a unique twist to this gripping, yet somewhat rhetorical tale.Trixie Stone is an imaginative, perceptive 14 year old whose life begins to unravel when Jason Underhill, Bethel High's star hockey player, breaks up with her, leaving a void that can only be filled by the blood spilled during shameful self-mutilations in the girls' bathroom. While Trixie's dad Daniel notices his daughter's recent change in demeanor, he turns a blind eye, just as he does to the obvious affair his wife Laura, a college professor, is barely trying to conceal. When Trixie gets raped at a friend's party, Daniel and Laura are forced to deal not only with the consequences of their daughter's physical and emotional trauma, but with their own transgressions as well. For Daniel, that means reflecting on a childhood spent as the only white kid in a native Alaskan village, where isolation and loneliness turned him into a recluse, only to be born again after falling in love with his wife. Laura, who blames her family's unraveling on her selfish affair, must decide how to reconcile her personal desires with her loved ones' needs.
The Tenth Circle is chock full of symbolism and allegory that at times can seem oppresive. Still, Picoult's fans will welcome this skillfully told story of betrayal and its many negative, and positive consequences. --Gisele Toueg
Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.
With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime -- or if your mistakes are carried forever.
Jodi Picoult, the New York Times bestselling author of Vanishing Acts, offers her most powerful chronicle yet of an American family with a story that probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child -- and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play the hero. Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life -- a straight-A student; a freshman in high school who is pretty and popular; a girl who's always looked up to Daniel Stone as a hero. Until, that is, her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. . . and suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. The Tenth Circle looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all of the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime or if your mistakes are carried forever -- if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.
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