Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices

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Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices

Author(s):

Jodi Picoult

Label: Washington Square Press
Publisher(s):

Washington Square Press

Studio: Washington Square Press
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Binding: Paperback
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $10.20
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sometimes finding your own voice
is a matter of listening to the heart....

Jodi Picoult's powerful novel portrays an emotionally charged marriage that changes course in one explosive moment....For years, Jane Jones has lived in the shadow of her husband, renowned San Diego oceanographer Oliver Jones. But during an escalating argument, Jane turns on him with an alarming volatility. In anger and fear, Jane leaves with their teenage daughter, Rebecca, for a cross-country odyssey charted by letters from her brother Joley, guiding them to his Massachusetts apple farm, where surprising self-discoveries await. Now Oliver, an expert at tracking humpback whales across vast oceans, will search for his wife across a continent -- and find a new way to see the world, his family, and himself: through her eyes.

Customer Reviews

Write What You Know

I have never posted a review on Amazon before, and I regret to start with a negative one, but for all the accolades I've heard about Jodi Picoult's work, this was very disappointing. There is a trite mantra for writers that they should 'write what they know' and it's clear that the author has familiarity with certain settings and characters, such as the New England orchards and women, but not others, such as most of the locales on the cross-country journey and most of the male characters, which seemed to be based on terrible stereotypes. I am a big fan of storytelling that moves back and forth in time, actually such techniques can be used to create tremendous anticipation and suspense, but in this case she gave away all the drama at the outset, even many of the critical details, leaving me with little incentive to continue.

I have lived in and/or traveled extensively to some of the stops on the cross country trip that Jane and Rebecca take, and it seemed as though the author had never been there, perhaps had informed her description of places like the Grand Canyon and Salt Lake City by reading wikipedia or someone else's take. Everyone and their brother says something like "it looks like a painting-like it's not even real" when they see the GC, surely a writer supposedly as gifted as this one can come up with something more profound and original. And I'm sorry to inform her and anyone who doesn't know, but Salt Lake City is not populated by men walking around with their three wives (the only characters we meet there.) Polygamy has been illegal there and banned by the LDS church for many decades, and the practitioners of it are a tiny minority mostly relegated to isolated remote areas. Those very few that may attempt to practice it in the more populated areas of the state would have to do so with continuous and extreme discretion- i.e. they wouldn't walk around as a foursome and they wouldn't introduce themselves to strangers as man and wives. What a ridiculous stereotype for Utah- sounded like it was a big parody or something, like the equally ridiculous trip through the overgrown field to reach the gas station/used car lot in Montana. Another exaggerated simplistic notion of what remote areas in America are really like. They can be strange and fascinating, but they really just don't seem like they are described here. Go West, Jodi, before you write about it, or take better notes next time.

In her defense, it sounds like she did her research or knows a bit about New England apple farms, and perhaps womens perceptions of love, but the male characters and their extreme attitudes and behaviors just don't fit the men they are supposed to be and the callings of their lives. Sam's preposterous overblown reactions to Jane's arrival, Oliver's grotesque angry thrill kill of the non-game bird after Rebecca scares off his quarry on the hunt, etc., all smack of further stereotypes, lack of depth in understanding or nuance in character development. The bottom line is way too much of this book is based around such cutout stereotypes that are at best stiff and misleading, at worst show laziness and lack of empathy or depth on the part of the writer. I read other reviews saying her other books are better, but this one hardly inspires me to want to pick up another one.

Song of the humback Whale

Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices
This is probably one of, if not actually the first of her novels, even though it is the last one I read, having gone through all her other ones. It shows the promise of what an excellent writer she would become, but was lacking, in my estimation, the depth of experience regarding relationships, which she has brought to her later work. I also found confusing the storytelling, which switches back and forth, between five narrators, describing the same situation from each one's personal point of veiw. Nevertheless, most enjoyable and thought provoking, like all her writing.

White Noise

I understand Ms. Picoult's desire to present compelling stories of modern day family life in literary packages but she unnecessarily complicates her first novel, "Songs of the Humpback Whale", with multiple narrators (at least you learn this up front on the title page) including a character that tells her story on a reverse timeline. Assuming she did her research right, I did learn quite a bit about the behavior of humpback whales, which I'm sure has some relationship to the behavior of the humans in the story, though I didn't take enough time to sort it all out. My wife and daughter are big Picoult fans, but they struggled with "Songs of the Humpback Whale" as well.

Three stars for taking on a challenging structure and for interesting technical info on humpback whales.

Jodi Picoult Novel Review

I love all Jodi Picoutlt's novels. This book was wonderful and it is not boring.

Not my favorite Jodi Picoult book

I have recently been introduced to Jodi Picoult's books by a friend of mine and this is the third that I have read (The first was Picture Perfect and the second was The Tenth Circle). I liked this one the least. I didn't like the way the story was arranged - with the prologue telling the ending but I DID like the story in 5 voices. I was also bored with Oliver and his whales and can't imagine how Jane could live with him. SPOILER: Finally, I hated the ending but understand it when considering that Jane was the adult child of an alcoholic father and was also sexually abused.

I agree with an earlier reviewer that it took a long time to get through this book. I normally read at least a book a week and this one took me two weeks to plow through. That being said, the characters were well developed and the story was certainly well told. This was definitely a wonderful first book for Jodi Picoult and I will continue to read her others.

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