Harvesting the Heart

A Novel

De: Jodi Picoult

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell

Jodi Picoult earned rave notices for her debut novel Songs of the Humpback Whale. Now this gifted young writer turns her considerable literary talents to the story of a young woman overcome by the demands of having a family.

Written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, Harvesting the Heart recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Sue Miller. Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own.

But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters and explores issues and emotions readers can relate to.

©1995 Jodi Picoult (P)2008 Penguin

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Picoult writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships." (The Boston Globe)

"Picoult has become a master - almost a clairvoyant - at targeting hot issues and writing highly readable page-turners about them.... It is impossible not to be held spellbound by the way she forces us to think, hard, about right and wrong." (The Washington Post)

Ok not her best.

The narration was ok
other than misreading a few words. Narrator needs to do more homework.

Mother’s and Daughter’s

If you have a beautiful version of yourself (a daughter) running around after you or beside you this is a great book for you. Jodi I want you to know I was yelling in the car while I listened to the book. Page and I have so much in common and you nailed the feelings of giving birth and being married perfectly!!

Dated

3.5 STARS

Jodi Picoult fans will be able to tell HARVESTING THE HEART is one of her earlier books. The story lacks the depth and tension of her later books. None of the characters are that empathetic, even Paige, whose mom abandoned her at age five. I did feel sorry for her father, who may not have been the perfect single parent, but he loved her and seemed to do his best after his wife and Paige’s mother left.

HARVESTING THR HEART is a story about estrangements within families, family members never talking about issues or feelings, never to reconcile. I didn’t understand why Paige’s father never tried to see her or meet her son, why in the eight years Nicolas was estranged from his parents, why they never called.

Nicolas grabs Paige frequently, which is never addressed. He says unkind things to her after she returns from running off for three months. I think if Jodi Picoult were to write this book today, she’d have left those parts out.

I enjoyed listening on Audible more than reading the book.

Family's Worth -

Another touching tale by J.Picoult of family challenges. Ms Picoult glows with this sort. Life's Generally about Seeing what you want & Doing EVERY tiny step needed to grab your win!! Eye opening in many ways + being willing to look at All View points. The ending for this one I felt was incompetent & abrupt in general. And Still Well Worth the read!

A first for me, not loving a Picoult novel

I always love the depth, drama and twists of a Picoult novel, but this one is a first where I have more dislikes than likes.

Understanding that this book was written in 1993 when I was in my early college years, I'm trying to give it some grace for being immature and of its time. But man - the amount of witholding, half truths, selfishness and backing people into uncomfortable and unfair situations are truly 1950's stereotypes. Both exhibit behaviours that they're railing against, and don't see in themselves at all.

Paige has understandable trust issues and desperately needs some help to unwind these things in her own life, but instead, she bulldozes herself into Nicholas' life, work and space and continues to think she can force him into forgiveness. She continues to lie and withold simple information from her teen boyfriend, her mother and her own friend group. Her Mother-in-Law is the one person who seems to get everything without being told - this completely breaks my ability to get to know that characther since it makes no sense how she's not able to stop Paige in her tracks and say "Just tell us the truth, we want to help" - they just offer her all the things she needs without her earning them from them.

Nicholas is occasionally delightfully open and deep, but his own inability to see how much pain, stress, and work there is once having a baby. His disconnect from seeing the clues seems to be thinking of a completely different charachter - one that doesn't have the ability to love and open himself up like he does before the main Plot twist - one that forces him into the very situations that should teach him some humulity, but he keeps walking right up to the point and missing it.

I kept waiting for one of these charachters to learn something, to have a relization, to understand something from someone elses perspective, but the only ones who seem able to do so are the inlaws, who don't get fleshed out enough for us to understand how that happened and why it keeps not happening to Paige and Nicholas.

Not a favorite

Jodi Picoult has always been a favorite of mine, but this is not a favorite of mine. It dragged a bit. This book just did not seem as focused.

Wonderful!

Jodi has written so much of real life in this book! i am constantly amazed by how well she accomplishes this. And Cassandra Campbell is becoming one of my favorite voices!

Gos help us all!

superb! Thought provoking....makes you realize how often we rush to judgement about others but not ourselves because we think we are perfect and always right,wf...God help us all!

Great story- meh ending

I really liked the narrator and the story itself was good. Unfortunately it doesn’t end well. Actually it just ends. There’s just too much left unknown. I love Jodi Picoult as a writer. Usually I like her stories from beginning to end. This one just didn’t do it for me.

Learning new topics

Each time I listen to a Jodie Picoult book, I loo forward to learning some new. Her topics are very well researched. I like details in a story. I like all of her books. However I don’t think this was her best. But worth listening to.