Pied Piper

Jodi Picoult is the first to admit that she is a commercial writer. In the market of commercial writing, she likes to think she has differentiated herself by creating characters that are so complex they demand the reader’s attention and consideration even after the book is finished. “I like it when my fans tell me they were up all night because they couldn’t put one of my books down”, says Picoult.

Diana Simmonds’ likening of her books to a rich, dense fruit cake that surprises you with cherries or nuts would have been a perfect analogy but for the fact Picoult can’t stand fruit cake.

Jodi Picoult was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She began writing novels when she was pregnant with her first child and now has 11 bestsellers to her name. Her most recent novel, Vanishing Acts, has just been released in Australia.

When Picoult is asked to describe what it was that lead her into writing, she says she can’t remember a time when she hasn’t written. “I always knew I wanted to be a writer – but my mum pointed out that it may not pay the bills so I spent two years running as far as I could away from a career as a writer”, says Picoult.

When she was at home with her first child and her first book Songs of the Humpback Whale, had just been published – she knew she would never go back to teaching 8th grade English. “Writing was way easier”, she says.

Picoult says the inspiration for her books comes from the “what if?” scenarios in life. What if a boy left standing after a botched suicide pact was accused of murder? What if an attorney didn’t think the legal system was quite good enough for her own child? Or, as is the case in her newest book – what if you find out the life you thought you knew was fabricated to protect you from the past you had lost?

Picoult doesn’t choose easy topics to write about and she always forces herself to “push the envelope” with a concept to see where it lands. Picoult says most people, when presented with a scenario, are certain of how they would react. Through her novels she takes ordinary characters and puts them into an extraordinary situation, hoping to make her readers think harder about what their own decision really would be. “You never know someone as well as you think you do – least of all yourself”.

If her writing is characterized by extraordinary situations, it is equally characterized by different narrators and interesting occupations. Picoult does extensive research to effectively create characters such as Delia Hopkins (who works in search and rescue) and Alex Rivers (a famous Hollywood actor). She also tells her stories with numerous narrators because she believes in giving voices to characters that may not ordinarily be heard. And of course, the endings aren’t always what the reader would expect.

The twists and turns and surprises that characterize Picoult’s endings are always known well before she writes the first line of a novel. “I always know the ending before I start. That way I can leave a paper trail for my readers to go back to. There is no fun in pulling a sucker punch”, she says.

But even Picoult will admit the chapters that lead to the end can sometimes surprise even her. “There is any number of ways to get from A to C and quite often my characters just get up and walk on their own.”

Just because she knows the endings of her own novels, doesn’t mean she could predict endings in others right? Wrong! Picoult is the first to admit that she is a bad person to watch a movie or TV with.

“I always know what’s going to happen.”

Tara Hayes

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Jodi Picoult

Book: Vanishing Acts
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Price: $29.95