Vanishing Acts
by Jodi Picoult
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Life is going well for Delia Hopkins. She has a daughter and a fiancé, and with her search-and-rescue bloodhound, she helps find missing persons. But as she plans for her wedding, she is haunted by inexplicable flashbacks to a devastating time she cannot recall.Tags
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I've never read Jodi Picoult before, and now having read this book, I can see why people love her: the book is very engaging and the topic is compelling. But I understand why people don't like her: the shifting viewpoints was difficult at times, some of the details in the book didn't drive the plot forward, and and the use of metaphors and coincidences was rather heavy-handed.
The plot of the story is a 32 year old woman discovers that she was kidnapped by her father as a toddler so she would not grow up around her alcoholic and neglectful mother. The truth comes to light and over the course of the trial and unfolding of related events, the readers decide for themselves - was the father right in kidnapping her? The book leads in one show more direction, but even after the book was over, I was still left pondering the various possible outcomes and which was the "right" one. show less
The plot of the story is a 32 year old woman discovers that she was kidnapped by her father as a toddler so she would not grow up around her alcoholic and neglectful mother. The truth comes to light and over the course of the trial and unfolding of related events, the readers decide for themselves - was the father right in kidnapping her? The book leads in one show more direction, but even after the book was over, I was still left pondering the various possible outcomes and which was the "right" one. show less
I enjoy the works of Jodi Picoult. She is an author who writes of moral dilemmas not easy to paint as black or white. In this book, Delia Hopkins is a successful search and rescue specialist. With her dog at her side, she is usually successful in finding and returning those who are lost. She has a small child and is able to put herself in the place of those in need.
After her mother died in a traffic accident, she was raised by her beloved father, He is loving, kind and, by standards, does a remarkable job in raising his only child. A model citizen of a small New Hampshire town, her father was responsible for creating an elderly home where all are treated safely in their later years.
As she makes plans to marry the father of her child, show more her world becomes upside down, and now she feels lost and no search and rescue operation could help find her and put her back the way she was before she learned that her mother was not dead, her birth name is Beth, and her father is wanted for abduction in the state of Arizona.
Meeting her mother who does not fit her imagined person, does not go as well as she hoped. Though, after the meeting, she has no doubt that this is her biological mother, and that her father took her away from a situation wherein her mother was an out-of-control alcoholic who was not a good mother by any standard.
At the trial, Delia is torn. She knows how she would feel if her child was abducted, yet, she loves her father and knows he took her away, fleeing a harsh woman who could not in any circumstances do what was best for the child. It's been 28 years, and now the authorities and Delia's mother want retribution.
3.75 Stars show less
After her mother died in a traffic accident, she was raised by her beloved father, He is loving, kind and, by standards, does a remarkable job in raising his only child. A model citizen of a small New Hampshire town, her father was responsible for creating an elderly home where all are treated safely in their later years.
As she makes plans to marry the father of her child, show more her world becomes upside down, and now she feels lost and no search and rescue operation could help find her and put her back the way she was before she learned that her mother was not dead, her birth name is Beth, and her father is wanted for abduction in the state of Arizona.
Meeting her mother who does not fit her imagined person, does not go as well as she hoped. Though, after the meeting, she has no doubt that this is her biological mother, and that her father took her away from a situation wherein her mother was an out-of-control alcoholic who was not a good mother by any standard.
At the trial, Delia is torn. She knows how she would feel if her child was abducted, yet, she loves her father and knows he took her away, fleeing a harsh woman who could not in any circumstances do what was best for the child. It's been 28 years, and now the authorities and Delia's mother want retribution.
3.75 Stars show less
Delia Hopkins was six years old when her father allowed her to be his assistant in the amateur magic act he performed at the local senior center's annual Christmas pageant. "I learned a lot that night," recalls Delia, who is now 32, at the start of Picoult's absorbing new novel (her 12th, after My Sister's Keeper). "That people don't vanish into thin air...." She has come to know this even better as an adult: she makes her living finding missing people with her own search-and-rescue bloodhound. As she prepares for her wedding, however, Delia has a flash of memory that is so vivid yet so wildly out-of-place among the other memories from her idyllic New Hampshire upbringing that she describes it to a childhood friend, who happens to be a show more reporter. Soon, her whole world and the world of the widowed father she adores is turned upside down. Her marriage to her toddler's father, a loving but still struggling recovering alcoholic, is put on hold as she is forced to conduct a search-and-rescue mission on her own past and identity. It will cut to the heart of what she holds to be true and good. show less
Delia Hopkins verbrachte eine glückliche Kindheit, daran bestand bisher nie ein Zweifel. Doch als eines Tages die Polizei ein schreckliches Geheimnis über ihre Familie offenbart, holt eine Vergangenheit Delia ein, von der sie nicht einmal wusste, dass es sie gab … Jodi Picoult erzählt die zutiefst berührende Geschichte einer Frau, und es gelingt ihr, den Wert der Erinnerung und der Liebe fühlbar zu machen.
I liked this book, which surprised me. I liked MY SISTER'S KEEPER, but haven't really like anything else. And I've tried. I have bought KEEPING FAITH [?], NINETEEN MINUTES, PICTURE PERFECT, and CHANGE OF HEART and haven't been able to get through them. Seriously, I start them and then just read the end because getting through the whole book is excruciating. But I read all of this one and enjoyed it.
I liked the relationship between the 2 men and the heroine. I liked who won the heroine's heart in the end. The twist of the alcholism from the anti-hero and the mother were wonderful. What I didn't like was the whole part about the dad in prison. It was so unbelievable to me. Getting beaten up, yes. Participating in making drugs in order to show more survive, maybe but it was a long time since he had been a chemist. Would he really have remembered all that stuff? When I stop working for a few weeks it takes me a couple of days to get back on track [I do science stuff] and remember details. Would he have been able to go from librairan to drug lord? Even in prison. It just struck me as too convenient.
I also didn't like the whole tracking of the little old lady with cancer and watching her throw herself off the cliff. It was out of place. I get the whole "vanishing" thing, but it didn't really fit with the rest of the story.
I did like the trial parts and especially the heroine's turn on the witness stand.
The relationship between the mother and the returned daughter struck me as stilted. I don't mean that their relationship was [it was, but it was supposed to be], I meant the writing. There was something there that kept it from flowing with the rest of the novel. I think it needed to be fleshed out more, maybe a bit more time spent on it.
Better than the other's, a keeper, but not on the favorite shelf. show less
I liked the relationship between the 2 men and the heroine. I liked who won the heroine's heart in the end. The twist of the alcholism from the anti-hero and the mother were wonderful. What I didn't like was the whole part about the dad in prison. It was so unbelievable to me. Getting beaten up, yes. Participating in making drugs in order to show more survive, maybe but it was a long time since he had been a chemist. Would he really have remembered all that stuff? When I stop working for a few weeks it takes me a couple of days to get back on track [I do science stuff] and remember details. Would he have been able to go from librairan to drug lord? Even in prison. It just struck me as too convenient.
I also didn't like the whole tracking of the little old lady with cancer and watching her throw herself off the cliff. It was out of place. I get the whole "vanishing" thing, but it didn't really fit with the rest of the story.
I did like the trial parts and especially the heroine's turn on the witness stand.
The relationship between the mother and the returned daughter struck me as stilted. I don't mean that their relationship was [it was, but it was supposed to be], I meant the writing. There was something there that kept it from flowing with the rest of the novel. I think it needed to be fleshed out more, maybe a bit more time spent on it.
Better than the other's, a keeper, but not on the favorite shelf. show less
A 28 yr old woman who has lived with her father since she was told that her mother died in a car accident when she was four suddenly finds her world shaken to the core. Her father is arrested for kidnapping her from her mother when she is four. Quite an emotional story. Kirkus: ell-oiled Picoult sets her latest expertly devised search-and-rescue tale in rural New Hampshire, where a kidnapping case is uncovered 28 years too late.As usual, Picoult (My Sister?s Keeper, 2004, etc.) spins a terrifically suspenseful tale by developing just the right human-interest elements to make a workable story. Single mom Delia Hopkins works with the local Wexton police and a bloodhound named Greta to find lost children. Delia?s close relationship with show more her divorced, 60-ish father, Andrew, who runs a senior-citizens? home, grows strained when he?s suddenly arrested on kidnapping charges. The victim is Delia herself, named Bethany Matthews before her father fled with her from a drunken Mexican mother in Arizona. For 28 of her 32 years, Delia has believed her mother was dead. With Andrew extradited to Phoenix, the strange history of the case unravels, complicated by the choice of Delia?s fianc?, Eric (father of daughter Sophie), as Andrew?s lawyer and the assignment of her childhood buddy Fitz to cover the case for his newspaper. Picoult is a thorough, perceptive writer who deliberately presents alternating viewpoints, so that the truth seems constantly to be shifting. When Delia finally meets the attractive, remarried Elise Vasquez, she can?t quite vilify a woman who has been sober for many years and works as a curandera (healer). Her father?s story is both suspect and understandable, especially in light of his horrific treatment in prison, caught up in the violence of rival gangs. The magnetic Eric is a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon when stressed, while dependable, silent lover Fitz waits in the wings for his chance. Meanwhile, Delia and Sophie make a fascinating digression into the mythical world of the local Hopi tribe. At times, Picoult goes over the top, allowing Sophie to get lost so that Greta can find her and, at the eleventh hour, inserting into the trial the possibility of Delia?s sexual abuse .An experienced novelist takes her sweet time to rich rewards: overall, an affecting saga, nicely handled. show less
"Just because you break the law doesn't mean you have intentionally crossed
the line into evil.
Sometimes the line creeps up on you, and before you know it, you're standing
on the other side."
I know I often review Picoult's books and say they're great, but
this one truly is amazing. If you only ever read one of her novels then this should be it. Well, I liked My Sister's Keeper by Picoult too, but this one is far
less depressing than that.
Vanishing Acts is one of those reads that draws you in right
away and leads you to keep reading long into the night because you just have to know what will happen next. It's captivating, that's how I'd describe it.
I read it while waiting in line for three hours to see a presidential candidate speak, and I show more barely noticed the wait, that's how caught up in the story I was.
My only criticism is that Picoult tries to tackle many big issues at once. She's got kidnapping, alcoholism, Native American life, missing children, the prison system, drug trades, legal ethics... and more in one book.
There were a few prison-related subplots that, while interesting, really weren't necessary to the plot. But overall it's a great book about love, family, perception, and the blurring of the lines between right and wrong.
Definitely check it out.
A. H. show less
the line into evil.
Sometimes the line creeps up on you, and before you know it, you're standing
on the other side."
I know I often review Picoult's books and say they're great, but
this one truly is amazing. If you only ever read one of her novels then this should be it. Well, I liked My Sister's Keeper by Picoult too, but this one is far
less depressing than that.
Vanishing Acts is one of those reads that draws you in right
away and leads you to keep reading long into the night because you just have to know what will happen next. It's captivating, that's how I'd describe it.
I read it while waiting in line for three hours to see a presidential candidate speak, and I show more barely noticed the wait, that's how caught up in the story I was.
My only criticism is that Picoult tries to tackle many big issues at once. She's got kidnapping, alcoholism, Native American life, missing children, the prison system, drug trades, legal ethics... and more in one book.
There were a few prison-related subplots that, while interesting, really weren't necessary to the plot. But overall it's a great book about love, family, perception, and the blurring of the lines between right and wrong.
Definitely check it out.
A. H. show less
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Author Information
118+ Works 147,298 Members
Jodi Picoult was born in Nesconset, New York on May 19, 1966. She received a degree in creative writing from Princeton University in 1987 and a master's degree in education from Harvard University. She published two short stories in Seventeen magazine while still in college. Immediately after graduation, she landed a variety of jobs, ranging from show more editing textbooks to teaching eighth-grade English. Her first book, Songs of the Humpback Whale, was published in 1992. Her other works include Picture Perfect, Mercy, The Pact, Salem Falls, The Tenth Circle, Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care, House Rules, Sing You Home, Lone Wolf, Leaving Time, and Small Great Things. My Sister's Keeper was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz. She received the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. She also wrote five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book series for DC Comics. She writes young adult novels with her daughter Samantha van Leer including Between the Lines and Off the Page. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Vanishing Acts
- Original title
- Vanishing Acts
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Cordelia "Delia" Lynn Hopkins / Bethany Matthews; Fitzwilliam "Fitz" MacMurray; Eric Talcott; Andrew Hopkins / Charles Matthews; Clutch; Concise (show all 11); Sticks; Ruthann Masawistiwa; Sophie Isabel Talcott; Elise Matthews Vasquez; Victor Vasquez
- Important places
- Wexton, New Hampshire, USA; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona, USA
- Epigraph
- What other words, we may almost ask, are memorable and worthy to be repeated than those which love has inspired? It is wonderful that they were ever uttered. They are few and rare indeed, but, like a strain of music, they are... (show all) incessantly repeated and modulated by memory. All other words crumble off with the stucco which overlies the heart. We should not dare to repeat these now aloud. We are not competent to hear them at all times. - Henry David Thoreau, 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,' 1849
- Dedication
- This one is for Katie Desmond,
who fed me Oreos for breakfast on my wedding day,
appreciates the fashion sense of blue suede shoes,
and knows just how many people died that first night out on the... (show all)> QEII.
Every once in a while, a person's lucky enough to
make an unforgettable friend: you're it, for me. - First words
- I was six years old the first time I disappeared.
- Quotations
- Memories aren’t stored in the heart or in the head or even the soul, if you ask me, but in the spaces between any two given people.
Sometimes, when you don't ask questions, it's not because you are afraid that someone will lie to your face. It's because you're afraid they'll tell you the truth. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Even when you can't see where they're headed.
- Blurbers
- George, Elizabeth; Mitchard, Jacquelyn
- Original language
- English US
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