Author+Study

Amber Hryn Period 11 1/6/11 Author Study __Summary:__ Allie and Cam have been happily married for a long time. Cam inherited the job of police chief in the small town of Wheelock in which he and his wife reside. Trouble threw itself at Cam and Allie when one of Cam’s cousins, Jamie, showed up in Wheelock and declared he murdered his wife Maggie. Allie and Cam are immediately thrown into the middle of the confusion. With all the distractions, Allie discovered she needed assistance running the flower shop she owns. It would be nearly impossible to run the flower shop by herself when orders were pouring in for the nearly approaching holiday. Coincidentally, Mia comes to town and offers to help her out. Having no place to stay, kind-hearted Allie offers that Mia stay with her and Cam. Soon Cam and Mia begin to develop hidden feelings for one another. As if the current circumstances were not stressful enough, as Mia and Cam spent more time together, things got more intimate. Expectedly, they went behind Allie’s back and shared a kiss. Later a kiss turned into an affair and Mia leaving town so that she did not further interfere with Cam’s marital relationship with Allie. Not having a clue of what is going on with her husband, Allie spent a lot of her time doing research and digging up information to assist in the setting free of Jamie. To throw another wrench in things, Cam is the police chief in Wheelock so he is forced to be on the prosecution side e of the trial. He developed angry feelings toward Jamie the moment he set eyes on him. As far as Cam was concerned, Jamie caused his story- book life to be troubled. Through all of this, Cam was unable to get thoughts of Mia to diminish from his mind. With Allie on one side, and Cam on the other, Jamie’s trail began. Eventually, Cam hired a private investigator and tracked Mia down. Realizing he couldn’t live without her, Cam was able to convince her to come back to town. Cam took advantage of very second he could spend with Mia. Allie gets wrapped up in doing everything she can to help Jamie’s defense lawyer with his case. She took multiple trips out of town Cam used her absences as opportunity to spend with none other than Mia. The affair continued and their relationship grew stronger and stronger. Soon, Cam and Mia got caught in the act by Cam’s mother. Disgusted by her son’s actions, she somehow felt sworn to secrecy. Needing an escape, Cam and Mia developed a cover story to go away together on vacation. In the meantime, the jurors are picked for Jamie’s trial. At this point, Jamie’s defense lawyer is convinced things could not get any worse. He and Allie work meticulously to develop a legit case. After spending a week with Mia, thoughts of leaving Allie began to cross Cam’s mind. He loved the unknown of being with Mia. When Cam returned home, Allie finally discovered what had been going on. In an angry fury, she sold all of Cam’s belongings. Allie could not stand to stay in the house any longer. She hopped in the car and drove until she couldn’t drive anymore. She went to a bar and got drunk and as a rebuttal had an affair with a random guy. However, this did not make her feel any better as she had expected. She ended up going home but keeping her distance as much as possible from the man who had betrayed her. Jamie’s trial continued through a long two weeks. Unexpectedly, the jury comes upon a decision of not guilty of any charge. With a sigh of relief, Jamie walked free. Cam and Allie began to make amends and agreed to put everything behind them and try their best at starting a new life together. __Connections:__ Cam loves the outdoors and being active. I also share the same love. However, throughout the book, it becomes evident that Allie does not share this passion. That often left Cam on his own. That reminded me of some of the members of my family. I frequently go for walks or jogs by myself. Much like Cam, sometimes I enjoy being by myself but others it would be nice to have company. In the book, Jamie killed his wife to honor her wishes. That situation compares to the controversy of suicide doctors who “kill” patients that are extremely ill. In the book and in the real world, everyone has their own opinion as to what is right and wrong. In //Mercy//, there is debate over Jamie’s future. Some think he should be walk free because he killed his wife out of love and mercy. Others think he should be locked up because no matter what the stipulations, murder is murder. That is much like the situation with suicide doctors. A lot of people think what they are doing is wrong and others are on the adverse side of things. Jamie’s situation also reminded me of abortion. Some people support abortion because they think that ultimately, the mother should be responsible for that decision. Yet other people are against abortion because in most cases, the fetus is developed enough to be a person so technically, they are choosing to have the baby murdered. I am personally strongly against abortion. Jamie’s trial had a lot of parallels to the controversy of abortion. It was hard for people to decide if Jamie committed murder or if out of mercy, he killed his wife. While reading the book and hearing about the horrible pain and trauma Jamie’s wife was going through, I often found myself thinking that Jamie should be set free and should not be locked up on charges of murder. I had trouble explaining why I was on Jamie’s side when technically; his situation was much like abortion. The mother of an unborn baby has no right to decide whether her child lives or dies, so then why did I side with Jamie? He should not have had the right to decide if his wife lived or died either. The description of the town of Wheelock reminded me of where I live. Both Wheelock and Rockton are very small towns and it is not hard to “know everyone”. In both cases, good news and gossip spread quickly. This causes Cam to be on edge about his affair. He knew the minute one person found out, the whole town would know. I can imagine that kind of news would spread like a wild fire in Rockton too. Cam reminded me of myself as a child. He constantly wanted something he couldn’t have and as a child, so was I. Cam thought it was unfair that he had to make a decision of who he wanted to spend his future with. He knew he wanted Mia but he also knew he couldn’t have her so he felt like he was settling with Allie. I had that feeling countless times as a child. I can always remember going to different stores with my family and insisting on visiting the toy section. Sometimes I would drop subtle hints to my mom about a toy I wanted. She always just shrugged it off like nothing. She left me wanting something I knew I wouldn’t be able to get. Instead, I would have to settle for a candy bar on the way out. __Visual Descriptions:__ This image seems so simple, but yet it plays such a big subtle part in the book. This floral arrangement reminded me of something that would come from a flower shop. If it weren’t for Allie’s flower shop, Mia would have never stayed in town and Cam would have never developed a relationship with her. Because Mia worked at the flower shop, she was able to first develop a thorough relationship with Allie and then eventually a relationship strong enough with Cam to turn him away from his wife. I think it is safe to say, without the flower shop, Cam and Mia’s affair would have never happened. Obviously, without the affair, Cam and Alllie’s relationship would have not have gone through such a time of pandemonium As I read the book, the scenes that took place in the courthouse were vividly described and easy to visualize. The decisions that took place in the courthouse were important to the plot of the book. What happened inside the courthouse determined the fate of one of the main characters. The picture above represents a work of beauty. Although it assuredly took many painstaking hours to build, the end result was worth the wait. That represents Jamie’s trial. It took a very long time to put his case together. There were times when both he and his lawyer wanted to throw in the towel. Determined, they stuck it out and in the end, the court scene became a thing of beauty to Jamie. It set him free from the burden that once seemed to heavy to carry. This police station represents Cam’s occupation. It is important from the beginning because he often wondered if his life would be different if he wasn’t forced to come back to Wheelock to inherit the job that had been through many generations of his family. He tends to blame all his problems on his “forced” inheritance of this job. He thinks to himself that he would not have had an affair if he didn’t have to come back to Wheelock. If he was free to choose where he wanted to live and what job he wanted to pursue, he wouldn’t have married Allie in the first place. He convinced himself that he would not have had his predicament if it wasn’t for this job. The ribbon above symbolizes breast cancer. This is the type of cancer that was originally discovered in Jamie’s wife Maggie. Then it was revealed that this was not the only location the cancer had infected. When I see this ribbon, I can visualize all of the struggles that not only Maggie went through, but also what Jamie went through as her husband. It symbolizes something that played a big part in the book. If Maggie never got cancer, then Jamie would have never been on trial and the book would have no evident plot. Also, if Jamie had killed his wife under different circumstances, the jury may have condemned him instead of setting him free of his charges. When Cam took Mia on a secret vacation, I was able to visualize the ski lodge they attended. Spending a week alone with Mia really made Cam’s head spin. He enjoyed himself with Mia so much that he was almost sure he wanted to leave his wife for her. When he comes home from his vacation, it was the cleaning out of Cam’s bag that allowed Allie to discover that Cam cheated on her. Without this sequence of events, I wonder if Allie would have eventually found out. This made me wonder if Cam would have enjoyed himself as much if it was Allie that he took on vacation instead of Mia. __Questions:__ 1. Was this book inspired by a personal experience or true story? 2. Who are the letters from in the book that start out each new chapter? 3. Why does the book seem to center more around Cam relationship with Allie and Mia than it does Jamie’s trial? 4. Both Cam and Jamie are described as big, tall, burly men. Why do the physically strong and stable men seem to experience extreme weakness whereas the women seem to prevail and handle stressful situations better? Would that change if the book was written by a male? 5. Are court scenes and relationships some of Jodi Picoult’s favorite things to write about?

Review: I thought Mercy was an okay book. However, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I felt like in the beginning of the book, the author introduced the fact that Jamie killed his wife. I expected the rest of the book would mostly be centered on this but I found that it centered more on an affair and other relationships. I found the book to be unorganized and it took a long time for it to actually get to the point. If I was to recommend this book to someone, I would suggest that someone who likes a lot of drama to read this. I would also recommend that someone with a lot of time read this. It took a long time to get started and it would take a determined person to read it faithfully.

__MLA CITATION__: · "breast-cancer-ribbon-2." //Raw Talent Magazine//. Web. 3 Jan 2011. . · "Creative Floral Arrangements – A Nice Addition Anywhere." //House Plants Review//. Web. 3 Jan 2011. . · "Crime in Loughborough and Charnwood." //in Loughborough//. Web. 3 Jan 2011. . · //PleasingVacations.com//. Web. 3 Jan 2011. . · "The Courthouse." //Local Win//. Web. 3 Jan 2011. .