Title: My Sisters KeeperAuthor: Jodi PicoultYear of Publishing: 2004Publishers: Hodder & Stoughton / AtriaCountries: Great Britain / America

For this assignment, I have chosen a novel entitled My Sisters Keeper written by Jodi Picoult. This novel is published in 2004 by Hodder & Stoughton in Great Britain. In America, it is published by Atria.This novel is actually inspired by a real family that goes through an exact situation the characters are dealing with. The author reveals that she gets the idea of writing this when she hears about a couple in America that successfully conceived a sibling that is a bone marrow match for his older sister who is suffering from a rare form of leukemia. His cord blood cells are given to his sister, who is still (several years later) in remission. Based on that, the author decides to write her own version of it but more and slightly different than the real one. Before we go any further, let me introduce the author of this amazing novel to you. Her full name is Jodi Lynn Picoult, she is widely known as Jodi Picoult. She was born on 19th May 1966 which makes her 48 years old this year. She is an American; she grows up in Long Island and New Hampshire. She is married and has three children; two sons and a daughter. Writing has always been her passion. In 1987, she graduated from Princeton University where she studied Creative Writing. When she was still a student, she had two short stories published in Seventeen Magazine. She also had a lot of jobs before she became a full time writer. Other than that, she is a Harvards graduate; she pursues her master in Education there. In 2003, she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction. There are many more to be mentioned. Not to forget, she also contributes to the society with fundraising for some causes and her best, helping teachers to enhance students writing.

Till this date, she is the bestselling author of 23 novels. Her last eight novels have debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, she is writing another novel to be published on 14th October 2014. Four of her novels have been made into television movies. Meanwhile, the novel Im reviewing which is My Sisters Keeper is a big-screen release from New Line Cinema (2009). The movie is adapted from this novel. The truth is I first watched the movie before I decided to find the novel. The movie is slightly different from the novel. As usual, there are a lot of scenes in the novel that are not acted in the movie. If they literally copied the novel, the duration of the movie would be longer for sure. For the film version, the director is Nick Cassavetes and a well-known actress, Cameron Diaz plays one of the main roles. The movie title is the same as the novel but the storyline is kind of different because the ending of the movie is not as same as the one written by the author. However, the movie still delivers the same message as the novel. Its just not as much.Actually, My Sisters Keeper is Jodis eleventh novel. It contains 402 pages; I manage to finish reading the novel in two days. The language and words that the author uses is moderate and it is easy for me to understand. Not to forget the message that the author is trying to deliver also does not have a hard time to get to the readers heart. This is one of the must-read-novels as it is not as clich as the others. It is different in its own way as it is realistic; there are so much love and heartbreaks and turning points. This novel gives you anger, tears, sympathy and all feelings combined at the same time.So far for me, this is the best novel I have ever read and I will let you know more on why I choose this novel for my assignment.

TYPES OF GENREThis novel is a realistic fiction novel. Realistic fiction is when the author writes a story based on real life or when the story could and possible to happen in real life. Most of the characters characteristics, jobs, behaviour are all real. The places mentioned in the novel exist in real life such as Jersey and Brown University in England. Since this novel is closely connected with cancer and such, there are a lot of medical information and scientific names of things. All of those scientific words used by the author are real such as haemoglobin, neutrophils and promyelocytes; theyre the names of cells in our body. I have been understood that the author, Jodi Picoult was inspired by a couple who successfully conceived a bone marrow sibling in America. Plus, even the author herself was experienced with the medical situation as her son had undone ten surgeries in three years before she wrote the novel. She also did a lot of researches while writing this. This novel is somehow real but not real. It is a complicated story but simple enough for the readers to understand because it is related with their lives. Thats how I find this as realistic fiction.

SYNOPSISThis novel is about a 13 years old girl named Anna Fitzgerald and her family who is going through a hard time trying to save Annas dying sister, Kate from a rare type of cancer namely acute promyelocytic leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Anna was born for a specific purpose; to save her sister. One day, Anna went to a pawn shop to sell her necklace. With all the money she had collected, she went to see Campbell Alexander who is a well-known lawyer in Rhode Island. She wanted to file a case against her parents for the right on her own body. Specifically, it was a petition for medical emancipation. When Sara received the letter from court, she was both shocked and angry. She felt stabbed by her own daughter. She even tried to talk to Anna about it so many times and asked Anna to drop the case. The court thing was a distraction for her as she was busy taking care of Kate at the hospital. As Campbell Alexander represented Anna, Sara Fitzgerald represented herself as her own lawyer. Sara was forbidden to talk to Anna about the case outside of the court. Following to that, Anna was given a guardian ad litem, Julia Romano who was going to investigate more on her case and to represent Annas best interest at the court. While Anna was busy with her case, Sara was busy taking care of Kate and figuring out how to win the case, Kate was busy being sick and Brian was busy being a fire fighter- there was Jesse Fitzgerald, the eldest son. He was busy setting buildings into fire, blowing places up, stealing a car, getting himself into jail, smoking, doing drugs and seeking for attention of his parents. Since Kate was diagnosed, all the attention went to Kate instead of him and Anna. One of his acts was found out by his father, Brian but Jesse wasnt send to the cops. They had a talk, a little fight and Brian ended up keeping it as a secret.On the hearing day at the Family Court, Anna revealed that the reason she filed a petition for medical emancipation against her parents was because Kate asked her to do so. Kate wanted to die because she knew she would eventually die anyway but her parents wouldnt let her. Anna could donate a kidney but Kate was the one to tell her no. Sara didnt believe Anna. So the whole courtroom ended up visiting Kate in the hospital so that judge DeSalvo could talk to her. To no shock, Kate was actually expecting him. On the closing day, judge DeSalvo declared that Anna was medically emancipated from her parents and he asked Campbell to assume medical power of attorney for Anna until she turns 18 years old. He will help her in making any difficult decisions. They won the case. However, fate had it all planned, Anna got into an accident with Campbell. Campbell was saved but Anna wasnt. Her brain was dead and they had to turn off the machine that kept her alive because there was no chance at all. At the hospital, Campbell stepped out and told the doctor that he had the power of attorney for Anna and there was a girl upstairs who needed a kidney donation, it was Kate.The surgery went successful and Kate was saved. It had been 8 years since her last relapse; it was 2010 at that time. She quietly blamed herself for Annas death, if it was not because of her, she wouldnt file the lawsuit and had to sign those papers and got into an accident. At the end of the novel, Kate graduated from university, Jesse got into Police Academy and Campbell and Julia got married. Anna was in memory.

THEMESThis novel portrays love. Love of a mother towards her daughter, it is beyond everything anyone could ever imagine. We see mothers love everyday around us but we dont always get to see it close, feel it for real or be in the mothers shoes. This novel somehow tells the readers how a mother sacrificed pretty much her whole life, just so she could be with her dying daughter and she would do anything to save her. She quit her job as a lawyer and started to be a full time mother, she sacrificed a lot of things when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. How at first she thought that having two children was more than enough, she conceived another one and how she would fight her own child at the court for the sake of saving her other child. She fought because she had no choice; she needed Anna to donate a kidney to Kate but then of course Anna would file a lawsuit. Maybe the love she poured on her children seemed unfair as she could say that her daughter was sick that she needed more attention than the other children. One thing they dont know is; she didnt mean that. She loved her daughter so much she didnt want to let her go; she would choose every option she had to keep her alive. Every parent would do the same thing, right? There were too much love and sacrifices, giving up should never be an option.

Fire is one element that is related to this novel. As we all know, fire destroys things. Once it is lighted up, you cant make it stop. Sometimes trying to extinguish the fire would only make it even worse. Water doesnt always help but it is definitely an element that would help to cool it down. Just like Jesse, who had this very bad behaviour where he set buildings on fire because he thought by doing that could make him feel better? At some points, we as humans we could have a breakdown. In this case, he knew he couldnt do anything to save Kate and that made him feel left out because he was functionless. His parents started to pour their attention and love more on his sisters instead of him. He began to rebel. One of the lines in the novel is he knows he cant save so he destroys because that will make him feel better. Just like how a small fire could destroy a huge building, Kates sickness started to break her family apart without them realizing it. Too much heartbreaks, too much tears, too much worries, too much of everything. For every move that is made, one person is happy while another one is in misery but come to think of it, it is a normal situation. And then theres Brian, a firefighter who would go into the fire and save whoever in it. He thought to himself that he became a firefighter to save people, but that he should had been more specific about whom he wanted to save. Its not a shock that he goes went to work than taking a leave because if he was not at work, he had to sit at home and face all those situations he didnt want to be a part of. But he still had to turn around and deal with it. Then again, fire is what tears the family apart. Maybe they already saw it burning but they refused to extinguish it because if they did... Well, they just couldnt.

Another theme in this novel is the difficulty in making decisions. Making a decision is always the hardest part of all because we dont know whether the decision were about to make, the option were about to choose is right or wrong. Maybe were the only people who think that our decision is right but other people disagree with us. But then again, thats what we want. Its so complicated because whatever we say might hurt other people but we dont live to please them and for sure we dont want to hurt them either. Although Anna is only 13 years old, she had the right to speak up for herself. Maybe they thought that a 13 years old girl werent incapable of making a decision, so her opinion wouldnt count in any circumstances- She had to agree with whatever was chosen for her. Next, Sara. Shes an adult, shes Annas mother but even she herself couldnt decide whats best for both Anna and Kate. She didnt even know what both of them really wanted because all she cared about was dont let Kate die. At the end of the day, Anna won the case because as a child, she needed to be heard too. If its something related to her, she should get the chance to decide too but with guidance.

TONES OF THE NOVEL(a) SeriousThe author put serious tone in the novel at the part where Anna Fitzgerald went to meet Campbell Alexander for the first time in his office. The author used serious tone to show how courageous she was with the decision she was about to make when she was going to file a lawsuit against her parents. At that time she was glowing with anger. The readers could feel how Anna was trying to put her words together at the office. It took her a lot of courage to sue her parents and she was only 13 years old. Theres way too much to explain, and so I do the best I can. Its not God. Just my parents, I say. I want to sue them for the rights to my own body.Page 18, line 32 to 34.

(b) AngryThe author used angry tone at the part when Sara came home from the court after she found out that Anna did not want to drop the lawsuit. At this time the author did not emphasize on any word but the choice of words that she put together was really deep that it hurt Saras other daughter, Kate. The readers could really feel the anger Sara was feeling until she could not think before she speak. I have one child whos just signed her sisters death sentence, and Im supposed to cool off?Page 89, line 3 to 4.

(c) FrustratedFor frustrated tone, the author combined anger, confused, disappointed altogether. At this point, Anna felt frustrated with everything and somehow she was confused whether she should go on with the lawsuit or drop it; one side forced her to drop while the other side kept pushing her. Her words full of heartbreaks. You want to know what I want? Im sick of being a guinea pig. Im sick of nobody asking me how I feel about all this. Im sick, but Im never fucking sick enough for this family. She opens the car door while it is still moving, takes off at a dead run to the firehouse, a few hundred feet in the distance.Page 215, line 26 to 31.(d) HumorousDespite all of those negative tones that are majority of the pages in the novel, the author also used a few humorous tones at certain situation. In this case, Anna was both nervous and scared because she was going to sit at the witness stand to testify. Her lawyer, Campbell Alexander helped her to get rid of those unwanted feelings by telling her a joke that they always told each other. It did help Anna to get rid of her nervousness and made her ready to talk at that time. So Campbell walks up to the witness stand and leans so close that I only hear him. When I was a kid I had a friend named Joseph Balz, he whispers. Imagine if Dr Neaux had married him.Page 361, line 27 to 30.

(e) Regretful Towards the ending of the story, after everybody had spoken up and told the readers their stories, Kate began to talk. She blamed herself for Annas death. The readers could put themselves in her shoes because it was her speaking. Its also sad at the same time; the plot twist of the story gave a huge impact on the characters lives at the end. And me, well, I began to hate myself. It was, of course, all my fault. If Anna had never filed that lawsuit, if she hadnt been at the courthouse signing papers with her attorney, she never would have been at that particular intersection at that particular moment. She would be here, and I would be the one coming back to haunt her.Page 405, line 18 to 23.

(f)

ISSUES PRESENTED BY AUTHORThere are three major issues found in My Sisters Keeper written by Jodi Picoult. The first issue that the author tried to emphasize is the biasness issue. This is the most important issue in the novel because without this issue, there would be almost no conflict at all. Why do I say that the author is presenting biasness? It is because the novel is about a 13 years old girl who files a lawsuit against her own parents so that she can make her own decision. A 13 years old and decisions are never something to be agreed by adults, ever. Other people might just laugh about it because it sounds ridiculous at some points.Biasness in this novel was shown when Anna filed a petition for medical emancipation. When she firstly met her lawyer, Campbell Alexander, he thought that she was just one of those Scout girls who wanted to sell her cookies. He was sort of stunned when Anna told her that she was there to sue her parents for the rights for her own body. Anna told him about the surgeries and donations that she had done for Kate since the day she was born; How her cord blood was taken from her the minute she was born to be donated to Kate, when she was five she had lymphocites drawn from her three times, they even took her bone marrow for transplant, when Kate got infections she had to donate granulocytes and when she relapsed again she had to donate peripheral blood stem cells. And latest, they wanted Anna to donate one of her kidneys.Annas mother, Sara was very angry when she found out about the lawsuit. As mentioned before, adults would find it ridiculous and irrelevant for 13 years old to make a decision because they thought that the kid wasnt mature enough or didnt have the right to make her own decision. Somehow Annas father, Brian and her brother, Jesse were on Annas side by heart. Her father thought that Anna should be able to make her own decision while Jesse was always supportive. Sara was different. She thought that Anna hadnt grown up enough to make her own decision. She forced her to drop the lawsuit a few times because she was desperate to save her other daughter who was in need of kidney.Julia, her guardian ad litem also thought that Anna was just confused and she didnt even know what she really wanted. She couldnt make decision by herself because she wasnt mature enough that confusion is normal at Annas age. Other doctors thought the same thing too. They never knew or probably didnt care about Annas wants because shes 13 years old.Truth is all of those presses from adults that made her feel confused.Other than that, identity crisis is also one of the major issues presented by the author. This issue could be seen clearly especially through Anna who had a hard time figuring out who she really was and what she really wanted and needed. In the novel, the author related the first issue, biasness with identity crisis. Basically, the biasness issue is the main factor why identity crisis occurred. At first, Anna was really sure and confident with her decision on filing the lawsuit against her parents until everyone decided to voice out their thoughts on how a 13 years old girl shouldnt be allowed to make her own decision. Her decision could be right but when other people told her it was ridiculous and pushed her to drop the case, she started to feel confused. Their judgment somehow influenced her in every way. So Anna experienced identity crisis there because she was confused with her own decision. In other words, she was in dilemma. She did not know whether what she should do at that time, she felt like dropping everything away because they kept pushing her and told her she was wrong. Anna was also confused with who she really was, she felt neglected because she never got enough attention from both of her parents. Whatever she did, she wanted to do, her parents would always put Kate first and thought of her first in every decision they made. Their attention was only for Kate because she was the sick one. If it was not for Kate being sick, Anna would not be there. They carried her through some whatever laboratory processes to make sure that Annas cells would be a perfect match for Kate. Anna was only there for the sake of saving her sister and she kept thinking of it because what if Kate was not sick? Would Anna still be a part of that family? That was the thought that she could never get it off her mind. The way her parents treated her made all of those thoughts seemed true. On the other hand, there was Jesse Fitzgerald, Annas older brother who had identity crisis as well. Just like Anna herself, he did not get enough attention from his parents. But as for Anna, she did get a little more attention from Jesse because she was connected to Kate. Whenever Kate was in hospital, she would be there too. Well, of course she would. They might need her to donate whatever Kate needed. Jesse was left out because he was not able to do anything. He was not a bone marrow match to Kate like Anna so he was functionless. While everyone was at the hospital, he was somewhere else destroying things with fire and catching trouble. He rebelled because he felt that he was not able to do anything at all so he started to destroy. He wanted attention but he never really got one until they found out about him and his rebel teenage games.Despite biasness and identity crisis, theres another one and last major issue that the author emphasized in her novel which is resistance. Resistance in this novel is more to denial. It can be seen through Saras relationship with her daughter, Kate. Sara knew that Kate was going to die and would die sooner or later but she refused to accept that. Kate had a very little chance to survive because the type of cancer she had was rare. Sara was so obsessed in saving Kate. She was there for her 24 hours; she always had herself alerted with whatever Kate was feeling and whatever Kate was doing. She would rush to her if she felt that something was wrong. She would even break Kates bedroom door. The first time Kate was diagnosed, they told her that there was nothing she could do to save her because Kate was in need of blood cords and such. Her case was special and rare so it would be very hard to find a perfectly match donor. Sara thought her family was just perfect and that she didnt need more until the doctor suggested her to conceive another baby to be a perfect bone marrow match to Kate. Meaning to say is that the baby would be an official one and only donor of Kate. She did, she conceived another child for the sake of saving the other.Kate survived for 10 years after her first relapse. When the cancer was back, Sara was once again obsessed with Kate. She just would not give up on her, at all. There was this time when Kate went into a coma and the doctor said that she could die. Even Brian himself asked Sara to let it go and bring Kate home so she could die there. Sara refused to do so. She would not let her die even though she knew that Kate would die anyway; if it was not that day, probably a day after or perhaps a year later. When Anna filed the lawsuit, Sara was beyond angry because Anna was the only donor. Anna was there to save her, she was supposed to do so but then she turned away because she wanted a life and Sara thought it was ridiculous. What about Kate? If Anna was the one to decide, of course Kate would die. She did not get there to give up on her. She just wouldnt let Kate die. Shed given up literally her whole life for her daughter; she quitted her job as a lawyer, shed gotten into a lot of fights with Brian, she neglected everything and only focused on Kate, nothing else but Kate, just Kate. She never gave it a break. She did not realise that.

CRITICAL ANALYSISFrom my point of view, I agree on Annas action in filing the medical emancipation. Everyone has their own rights on their own body; we all should be given the chance to decide what we want to do with it. It is indeed true that 13 years olds are not mature enough and old enough to make their own decision but if it has something to do with them, they need to be heard too. Decisions that we make are not always right, but that is how we learn. In every decision we make, we should always think of other people too but of course by putting our best interest first.I could put myself in Annas shoes as a girl who just wants to live a normal life. Her parents do give less attention on her and her brother because they are too focused on their sick daughter. Her needs and wants are never something that they would give a second thought on. Her passions, her hobbies are the sacrifices she has made for her sister. All her life, since the day she was born, she had been there for Kate. Every time Kate went into hospital, she would be admitted as well because they would always need something from her and they never got enough of it. She had always agreed to them, to any of the decision they made- she never said no. Whatever they wanted, she gave it to them every single time because even if she spoke up, they wouldnt bother to hear. They would probably bring up the real reason she was there was because her sister was sick. She wouldnt even exist if the cancer didnt attack Kate.So for the first time in her life, Anna wants to be able to make decisions for her own good. I dont find it wrong for a child to want to live a normal life. I just think that its unfair that she has to make sacrifices without her own permission. From blood cords and now they want to take one of her kidneys because Kates kidney stops functioning. As for her parents, Im not sure if I am qualified to give my opinion on how they are supposed to treat their children. Its just that they should consider Annas thoughts in every decision theyre about to make for her because it would of course affect her more than they would know. Yes, Kate is important because shes sick but other children are important as well. They should pay attention on each of them equally. Maybe its hard and impossible to do so, I am not in their shoes but trying wont hurt.

I also think that the reason why Anna finds a lawyer is because she knows that if she speaks, nobody will listen to her. They will just ignore her and tell her to shut up and follow whatever they say for the sake of her sister. Maybe involving the law is the only way she can tell them she really doesnt want to do it anymore. She has a choice, shes aware of it and shes going for what she wants. It doesnt matter what age a person is, they should always be heard. Sometimes what they want is so much more than what we want. We wont know if we dont listen and consider. That is why parents need to always pay attention on their children. In terms of identity crisis, again Im going to talk about attention. Both of Anna and Jesse are having throughout the novel because they are given lack of attention. At their age, it is normal to have that issue because theyre still learning and adapting to the unusual environment around them. Sometimes all children want is a little talk, they want to be heard, they want to be seen, and they want to be important as well. Maybe they cant give as much as other kids can but its cruel to put high expectation on them because theyre just kids they cannot always do what we want them to do. So when theyre not given enough attention, they start to seek for it. Some of their ways of seeking for attention are not something that their parents would approve. Like Jesse, he burns buildings, he steals car, smokes, drinks and does drugs. Most of the kids these days, we can see it around us how they are still struggling in figuring out and finding out their own identity. They learn a lot in getting there. Mistakes are most likely their best friends because some of them carry mistakes everywhere they go but that is a part of learning. Mistakes are our teachers, we learn from our experience. Anna was really struggling; she almost drowned in her pool of confusion. All she wanted was attention, she did get attention but it was not enough. All the effort she made was actually just to gain attention from both of her parents. Yet, they turned against her. They thought that she was wrong that she betrayed them and wanted her sister to die. They could not see it yet, how she wanted them to listen to her but they just wouldnt. She always thought that Kate was lucky because she was sick so everyone would be there for her all the time. Anna thought that she was not sick enough to be in that position, to be important too. Being in that family, she felt like she was just a comer that her presence was only to save Kate, nothing more; thats all. Most of the time, she thought by herself- if Kate wasnt sick at the first place, would she be there? As for resistance, to me this is the most heartbreaking part of the novel. Ive lost a family member before so I do know how losing feels like except that I dont know how it feels like to have a family member who is chronically sick and slowly dying. I know and I do understand how Sara wants to do anything and everything she can to keep Kate alive. She has been doing so much; she sacrifices a lot of things and gives up her life for her daughter. It is sweet but heartbreaking because she is aware that Kate is dying but she wont let her do that. It is like she is fighting with fate and shes good at doing it. As a mother, it would be extremely hard to lose a child whom you conceive with love. Well, losing is never an easy thing to handle. I admire Sara, her effort and determination in saving Kate. All of those somehow make her stronger that every single thing that happens to Kate after that, she would fight it with her. That is why she resists the fact that Kate is dying because when everyone else gives up on Kate, Sara doesnt. She always has hope but theres time when she should learn to let go. What she doesnt realize is that fighting is good but sometimes youre torturing other people while youre fighting for them. You dont want them to get hurt but youre actually become the one who is hurting them while keeping them away from pain. There are times when you have to learn to let go.

RECOMMENDATIONS(a) AdultsThe target readers of this novel are firstly adults. The situations involved in this novel especially the ones that relate to the law is something that only adults would understand. There are also some parts especially where Sara tells her story, it doesnt really suitable for children. The story line itself is complicated; a reader needs to have a deep understanding and an open mind when they read the story because it gives the reader a lot of emotions to be felt altogether at the same time. Adults are ought to read this novel so that they are able to understand the difficulty in making decision, that everyone gets to make their own decision no matter how old they are. Just like how Anna files a petition for medical emancipation because nobody wants to listen to her, so she chooses the law. Although she is only 13 years old but that doesnt mean her opinions dont matter at all.

(b) ParentsThis novel is also important for parents because it is mainly about family. It can help parents to open their mind and heart about how the children actually think and what they really want. In every decision their parents make for them, parents are advised to ask their opinion first because it is somehow involves them. Its not fun being in a situation where people make decisions for you and refuse to listen to what you want to say about it. Parents also can learn about how important attention is for their children. Lack of attention could lead the children to a wrong way. Sometimes all a child one is attention from their parents. By reading the novel, parents could put themselves in the children shoes. It does feel hurtful to be treated unimportantly or to be neglected while the other sibling gets every little attention without them asking for it. Hence, parents need to treat their children equally and pay attention on each one of the child. Children these days, they are unpredictable.

(c) Young AdultsOther than adults and parents, this novel is also intended to young adults. Although the content is more to adults, they are suitable for young adults group as well as the language is very moderate and easy to understand. The author does not use any complicated or bombastic words throughout the novel, it is readers-friendly. The reason why this novel suits young adults because it tells them about what kind of scarification any parent would make for their children. In this case, the novel tells about Sara and Brian who gives up a lot of things for the sake of saving Kate. This novel conveys that parents are not perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes and they do not even realize it and maybe they will not realize it at all but expecting too much from them is just a no. Parents do try their best in making their children happy but children are too innocent, they are too immature to see that. They need to be highlighted and they need to be told so they can see it clearly. In other words, parents are human too. Sometimes they dont have a choice. Some decisions that they make for their children are probably irrelevant but theres always something behind it. The good will come eventually. They always know whats best for their children.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE NOVEL & THE FILMAs I have mentioned in the introduction, the novel Im reviewing namely My Sisters Keeper does have a film adapted from the novel that was released in 2009. The director is Nick Cassavates, who is also a director of the famous romance film, The Notebook. The characters are played by Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald, Abigail Breslin as Anna Fitzgerald, Sofia Vassilieva as Kate Fizgerald, Evan Ellingson as Jesse Fitzgerald, Jason Patric as Brian Fitzgerald and Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander. In the film, the Julia Romano character who is the guardian ad litem for Anna during her case does not appear. The film is exactly like the novel except that there were some parts and scenes that are cut off. If not, the duration of the film will be longer. The story line sticks the same way like the author portrays it. There are no added characters at all. The differences are quite a lot but they are only in minor category.The differences in the film are firstly the novel is set in the state of Rhode Island while the film is set in the state of California. In the novel, Jesse commits numerous arson attacks in the novel before eventually being confronted by Brian but in the film, Jesse does not appear as a troubled teenage boy at all. Besides that, the relationship between Anna and Campbell is not explored as deeply in the film, and Campbell is a more central character in the novel. In addition, Sara is supposed to be a brunette whereas in the movie, she is blonde. Kate and Taylor sneak into a hospital room and make love to each other in the film. In the novel, it's just a kiss. As for Anna, her age in the film is eleven while in the novel she is thirteen years old. On top of that, Judge De Salvo is a man, but in the film, she is a woman. The biggest impact of this film is the ending that completely changes the whole story that I firstly read. The ending in the novel is when Anna dies in a car accident where she experiences a brain failure and Campbell Alexander donates Annas kidney to her sister who needs it at that time. Then, Kate lives for the next 8 years onwards and at times she thinks of Anna and blames herself for her sisters death. As for the film, Kate dies in her sleep at the hospital before the court has made the decision about the case. Anna wins the case. The Fitzgerald family moves on and the ending is when they go for a holiday at their most favourite place in the world which is Montana on Kates birthday to keep her in their memory.

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