Picoult's Let-Down

Has Jodi Picoult’s formula for a best-seller (finally) grown old? According to the Boston Globe, her latest book, Handle With Care, feels tired, and her typical structure of addressing a topical issue through alternating perspectives wears thin. The book, which centers around the idea of “wrongful birth,” isn’t a page-turner, and lacks the suspense of her other work. Part of the problem is the issue itself: Picoult fails to plausibly portray the parents’ dilemma. “If it's not going to be a page turner,” the Globe writes, “better have a little more meat on the bones to chew on in contemplation.”