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Change of Heart (novel)
Encyclopedia
Plot introduction
Shay Bourne is the first New HampshireNew Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
death row prisoner in 58 years. He wants to donate his heart after his execution to the half sister/daughter of his victims who is in need of a heart transplant. He first has to get approval to be hanged so the heart will be available.
Prologue
A man is killed by a drunk driver, leaving his wife June and his daughter Elizabeth behind. At the scene of the accident, June meets a police officer named Kurt Nealon, who becomes a close friend and later marries June. Years later, June is pregnant and Kurt plans to create an addition to their home. A young man named Shay Bourne offers to help with the addition, which June says is "the beginning of the end."The trial
Elizabeth and Kurt are found murdered, and Shay is identified as the only suspect. The case and his trial become a media sensation. The jury convicts Shay of two counts of capital murder. The jury deliberates on the death penalty. After much time, they all agree, with Michael Wright, a young priest, being the last juror to agree on the death penalty after being coerced by other jury members.Eleven Years later
Shay Bourne is transferred to the I-tier at the Concord state prison. Shay is in the cell next to Lucius DuFresne, an artist with HIV who killed his gay lover, Adam. During the night Shay tells Lucius that he wants to donate his heart to a little girl he saw on TV. She is revealed to be June and the late Kurt's daughter, Claire, who has a terminal heart condition.Michael the juror has become the junior priest at a parish in Concord, New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
. He tries to change the stereotype of a priest.
June agrees to meet Shay in a restorative justice
Restorative justice
Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims, offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender...
meeting. There she asks him, "Why did you do it?" Shay answers, "She was better off dead." June agrees to take Shay's heart out of spite. A lawyer, Maggie, starts the legal process to petition the commissioner of corrections to allow Shay to be hanged so his heart can be donated to Claire. Claire's doctor deetermines that Shay is a perfect heart transplant match.
Maggie brings Father Michael to her parents' house for dinner. During a religious discussion, Rabbi Bloom gives Father Michael a book about the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, written by Ian Fletcher. (He is a character in a previous Picoult novel, Keeping Faith
Keeping Faith
Keeping Faith is a novel by bestselling author Jodi Picoult about a custody battle involving a seven-year-old girl who may be seeing God.-Main characters:*Faith White, the little girl who begins to see and speak to God...
.) Shay has quoted parts of the Gospel of Thomas. One of the prisoners in the I-tier attacks a guard guard with a broken broom handle while cleaning his cell. He is pronounced dead by the EMT's, as Shay huddles in the corner of his cell praying. The dead guard comes back to life while the EMT's are moving his body. Another prisoner using the confusion attempts to kill Shay.
Father Michael visits Ian Fletcher to discuss the Gnostic gospels. Maggie arranges a dinner meeting with Dr. Gallagher to discuss organ donation for Shay. The dinner turns into a date. June sneaks Dudley (a spaniel) into the hospital to make Claire feel better; and a nurse reveals the upcoming transplant, which June has not discussed yet with Claire.
Shay's trial begins, and Father Michael testifies to the prisoner's religious belief that he needs to donate his heart to Clarie to obtain redemption. Father Michael uses Shay's quotations from the Gnostic gospels as his religious foundation. Ian Fletcher testifies as an expert on the Gnostic Gospels. Father Michael admits to Shay that he was on the jury that convicted him. Father Michael locates Shay's sister, Grace, and tries to convince her to forgive Shay for setting the fire that disfigured her face. Grace started the fire in an attempt to kill their abusive father. Shay took the blame to protect his sister. While Shay testifies, all of his chains fall away from him for no apparent reason.
It is later revealed that Kurt was sexually abusing Elizabeth. At the time of the murders, Shay walked in on Kurt sexually abusing Elizabeth. He killed Kurt, who had shot Elizabeth accidentally instead of Shay. Shay had picked up Elizabeth and put her panties in his pocket, where they were found by the police.
Epilogue
Three weeks after her surgery, Claire goes home, where Grace visits her. Claire sees that her dog Dudley has died in her room but, when she picks him up and holds him to her chest, his heart starts beating again.Characters
- June Nealon — Mother of Elizabeth and Claire, wife of Jack and Kurt
- Elizabeth Nealon — June's daughter by Jack, her first husband
- Kurt Nealon — policeman at accident, then June's husband
- Claire Nealon- Kurt and June's daughter, needs a new heart
- Shay Bourne — accused murderer of Kurt and Elizabeth
- Michael Wright — UNH college student, member of the jury, priest
- Lucius DuFresne — Prisoner in the state prison in Concord. He has HIV, is an artist and has the cell adjacent to Shay. Lucius is in prison because he killed his lover, Adam in a fit of jealous rage.
- Alma — prison nurse
- Calloway — white-Supremacist prisoner in the I-tier
- Maggie Bloom- ACLU lawyer
- Oliver — Maggie's pet rabbit
- Dudley- June and Claire's 13 year old Springer Spaniel
- Dr. Wu — Claire's cardiac physician
- Rabbi Joel Bloom — Maggie's father
- Judge Haig — Judge that presides over Shay's trial to control his method of execution.
- Dr. Christian Gallagher — Doctor who provides Maggie with information on organ donation and eventually becomes her lover and the physician on record for Shay's execution.
- Grace Bourne — Shay's sister, she was disfigured in the fire that sent Shay to juvenile detention.
- Ian Fletcher and his now-stepdaughter Faith from Picoult's novel, Keeping Faith also make a cameo appearance in the novel.
Style
Change of Heart is written such that each chapter is from the point of view of one of the characters, either June, Lucius, Maggie or Michael.The overall concept of the book; namely the prisoner's supernatural abilities, bunkmates, bringing a dead back to life, healing etc. seem to be similar to The Green Mile (1996), by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. One of the inmates nicknames Bourne as "Green Mile."
Literary significance and reception
Publishers Weekly in their review said that "Picoult bangs out another ripped-from-the-zeitgeist winner. Picoult moves the story along with lively debates about prisoner rights and religion, while plumbing the depths of mother-daughter relationships and examining the literal and metaphorical meanings of having heart." It also says that "The point-of-view switches are abrupt, but this is a small flaw in an impressive book", however, others say that the different viewpoints of the characters provide valuable insight to the story for the reader and abruptness is inevitable.Donna Seaman reviewing in Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
writes, it is a "a compulsively readable saga and dramatic critique of capital punishment". She compares Change of Heart to The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
. Describing the novel as "Laced with intriguing musings on the Gnostic Gospels
Gnostic Gospels
The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of about fifty-two texts supposedly based upon the ancient wisdom teachings of several prophets and spiritual leaders including Jesus, written from the 2nd to the 4th century AD. These gospels are not part of the standard Biblical canon of any major Christian...
, Picoult's bold story of loss, justice, redemption, and faith reminds us how tragically truth can be concealed and denied."
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
writing for the New York Times had several criticisms about the book. She wrote that Picoult wrote the novel on "authorial autopilot", as it has the "subtlety of a jackhammer" and was made needlessly long by scenes such as Maggie chatting with her pet rabbit. She says that June Nealon is "a wet hankie of a character, full of grief and anger, but otherwise lacking any distinguishing characteristics." She felt that Jodi Picoult missed her own chance at redemption, "had Change of Heart culminated in revelations that were truly plausible or unexpected, its vapidity might have been transcended. But there is no substance to the story's last surprises."
In terms of public reception, Change of Heart debuted as number one on the New York Times Fiction bestseller list. It remained at the number one position for two additional weeks, before being knocked from the number one position on April 13, 2008 by Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman is an American psychologist, and Edgar and Anthony Award winning author of numerous bestselling suspense novels....
's Compulsion.
Publication history
- 2008, USA, Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
ISBN 9780743496742, ISBN 0743496744, Pub Date 4 March 2008, Hardcover - 2008, USA, Recorded Books ISBN 978-1428198173, Audio CD
- 2008, UK, Hodder & StoughtonHodder & StoughtonHodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
ISBN 978-0340935811, Pub Date 17 April 2008, Hardcover - 2008, Australia, Allen & UnwinAllen & UnwinAllen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
ISBN 978-1-7417-5496-4, Hardcover - 2008, Australia, Allen & UnwinAllen & UnwinAllen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
ISBN 978-1-7417-5073-7, Paperback