Jacob to Jacob

Since my last blog, I've finished Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, and it was nothing less of amazing. With every turn of the page, and every word read over, I fell more into the story. At ninety-something, there is nothing left for Jacob. His children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren no longer care for him as they should, and he is left in the nursing home to ponder out the reasons of why they don't come to visit him anymore. He talks about the past more frequently, giving a true insight about what was happening between himself and August - and of course, Marlena. As the chapters continue and pages are flipped, the relationship between Jacob and Marlena grows stronger and stronger until the two are clearly no longer friends, but something more than that. Stuck between an abusive husband and the man she actually loves, Marlena breaks off her ties with August, and begins a secret relationship with Jacob. Heart broken, August is barely able to function and falls weak at the knees when around Marlena, begging her to come back to him. Uncle Al, the owner of the traveling show, attempts to strike up a deal with Jacob - if Jacob speaks with Marlena, and Al speaks with August, maybe the two of them can get back together and therefore save the show. Unfortunate for Al, he doesn’t really know that Jacob and Marlena are together, but even Al, along with everyone else on the show, isn’t stupid, and knows something must be up between the two of them, especially after Jacob lashes out at Al, refusing to set the two of them back together.

As the book comes to an end, nearly every question is answered. What happens with Jacob and Marlena? Does the show survive? What happens to August? Does Marlena go back to August to end the drama? Who does Jacob eventually marry? And what happens to Jacob after everything? Well, I’m not going to answer any of those questions, because if you’d like to know, then I recommend this book. Although I thought the beginning was somewhat dry and confusing, this book grew to become a part of me. I could easily picture the story line in my head, and I couldn’t wait to start reading.

From one Jacob to another, I recently finished a third book, by Jodi Picoult, entitled, House Rules. From beginning to end, cover to cover, I loved this book. Usually, I steer clear of books by Jodi Picoult, for some reason I thought I didn’t like her. But, after reading this book, I realized what a truly amazing author and researcher she is. To make sure her books are accurate, down to the word, the personality, and the voice of each character, she researches months in advance, way before ever sitting down to put pen to paper.

House Rules is about a family, and the rules they live by: always tell the truth, clean up all your messes, and love your brother, he’s the only one you’ve got. Emma Hunt, a struggling single mother has two sons, Theo, who is fifteen, and Jacob, who is eighteen. Although Jacob is older than Theo, it is referenced many times that despite this, it’s usually Theo who ends up playing big brother to Jacob. Jacob, at the age of three, was diagnosed with Asperger’s, which is a high functioning form of autism. Jacob appears normal - he walks, he talks, in fact, he’s brilliant - but he’s a little awkward. One of the biggest parts of Asperger’s is the lack of social skills. Basically, if you were to have a conversation with Jacob, he’d be able to rattle off forensics scientists, facts, tests, blood samples, basically anything and everything about forensics, which is great, but he doesn’t know when to stop. If you continued to stare at him, he’d think you were still interested in the conversation, even though you haven’t actually contributed to the conversation at all. But Jacob’s diagnosis is serious. He’s completely OCD, and everything must have it’s own order. For example, his clothes are organized in a ROYGBV format, he can only wear and eat certain colors on certain days, (for example, Thursdays are only brown foods, Mondays are only white, and Fridays are only blue,) his bed must be made every morning, and just trust me when I say there are many more organized restrictions he has. In addition, he hates the color orange as it stands for danger, (thus the family must avoid “detour” signs at all costs,) he hates even numbers, as they are just bad, and finally he has a gluten and casian free diet. Jacob is a lot to handle.

His mother and brother have changed their entire lives to fit Jacob’s schedule, to the point that they forget what normal life is actually like. Theo hates Jacob most of the time and wishes he was gone, but when all evidence points to Jacob as the suspect of his social skills tutor, Jess’ murder, will he still want Jacob gone?

The police, the judge, even Jacob’s lawyer, Oliver, don’t understand his disability. Jacob can’t look people in the eye, he has a twitch in his hand, he answers questions extremely literally, and throws tantrums that can last hours, but, does that make him guilty? He’s eighteen but his mother must be with him at all times, so is he innocent? Should he plead insanity, even though as Jacob clearly points out, he is not insane? When asked if he killed Jess, he simply says he followed the rules, and cleaned up the mess he made. But what does that mean? Is Jacob a murderer?

This story is told extraordinarily well, as it is told from all five of the main characters perspectives, and each character has their own font and style of writing. The reader can clearly see Emma is concerned about Jacob, Oliver, the lawyer, although cool and collected, actually has no idea what he’s doing, Theo reveals some hidden evidence about what really happened at Jess’ house that day, Rich, the detective who interviewed and arrested Jacob for the murder of Jess, and finally Jacob, who doesn’t understand anything that’s going on, or why everyone is upset with him, when he claims he’s telling the truth. As the case unfolds and more and more is learned about Jacob, you’ll find yourself wondering if Jacob really did commit the murder, and if he did, why won’t he just say so? Emma says Jacob can’t lie, but Jacob isn’t exactly telling the truth either. If he didn’t do it then why can’t he explain? You’ll see the case develop and most likely solve the case before the end of the book, as I did, but you’ll be left in a stubborn state, wondering if the truth will ever come out.