Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

Where I'm from, this is statuatory rape - and I'm done. Next we come the the part where 15-year-old Rebecca gets down to bed business with Hadley, who is 10 years her senior. WHAT? When was the last time you went for a swim in the lake, or for that matter, met anyone who was heading out for a day on the beach? Also, she fails to mention the stench or the annoying bugs that surround this lake! (I've ridden my bike around Antelope Island - probably a more popular tourist attraction than the fine swimming!) As they arrive at the lake she mentions all the people swimming. Then, they take a ride to the Great Salt Lake with the polygamist doctor and his wives, which also happen to be heading there for a swim.

The mom faints in the post office and awakens to a polygamist doctor and his three wives, one of which is a nurse. She says the religion is stifling - no description as to why. Next, when the mom and daughter arrive in Salt Lake she gives an AWFUL description of the people and the main attraction - the Great Salt Lake.

The book is written from five different perspectives - which would be fine but she doesn't go in chronological order and she doesn't consistenly date the entries. Jodi Picoult has written too many books too quickly - she's lacking a good story and apparently doesn't research her material. This powerful and affecting novel demonstrates that there are as many truths to a story as there are people to tell it. Their stories intersect in an Iowa cornfield that still bears the wreckage of the airliner on which then-three-year-old Rebecca was being sent back to her father during her parents' earlier separation she was one of five survivors. Jane relates the events that occur from San Diego to Stow, while Rebecca tells the story in reverse, flashing back from the climax. On a cross-country automobile trip, Jane and Rebecca travel to Stow, Mass., where Joley is living and where each woman meets the man she believes is her destiny. A childhood victim of physical and sexual abuse, Jane has tried to submerge her memories, but this outbreak of violence causes her to reexamine her life. When an argument between Jane and Oliver culminates in her striking him, Jane is shattered. Other narrators are her daughter Rebecca her husband, Oliver, a marine biologist renowned for his research on the songs of humpback whales her brother Joley and her lover, Sam. The primary voice in this accomplished first novel belongs to Jane Jones, a speech pathologist living in San Diego, Calif. As Picoult uses five voices to tell a complex tale of love, friendship and a Faulknerian family history, her mastery of language strongly individuates her characters.

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult