Review of a novel: The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

This is already a well reviewed book but the overall slant of the reviews I've seen does not match my own so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

Firstly this is so far the only book that I have read by Jodi Picoult though it won't be the last. I was attracted by the idea of including comic-book excerpts in a novel. This did not disappoint; the images are powerful and add new material instead of rehashing the text. The graphic panels have an exaggerated style which fits in with what one expects of comics.

The novel is from the viewpoint of the father, David Stone, a graphical artist. It tells the story of the rape of his teenage daughter. This was a convincing portrayal to me, also a father.

David also talks a great deal of the "beast within"; his comic hero Wildclaw transforms into a uncontrollable beast under stress. The beast is something with positive as well as negative aspects. The unthinking, raging side of the beast surfaces at times in many of the characters who are pushed into desperate difficult situations.

Dante's Inferno plays a significant role in this novel as Laura, the mother in the central family is a scholar of this work and it is also featured in the graphical sequence. Interestingly Ficoult adds a new level of hell to the 9 levels described by Dante. I'll let readers discover for themselves the "sin" which Picoult felt had been under-represented in Dante's version of hell.

The novel returns David Stone to the place of his birth and his mother's death, Alaska. He had run away from there as a youth; now his daughter runs away to Alaska. The description of Alaska and the Eskimo culture was intriguing. David Stone portrays hell in his graphical work as like Alaska.

The rape is portrayed in it's complexity and multi-dimensionality. It is not easy to assign blame.

Another criticism I have seen in other reviews which I did not agree with are that the characters were not believable. I will say that the characters acted at times in surprising ways. The act of rape must be a very jarring event and should cause serious repercussions. The character of the investigating detective Bartholemew, also a parent added another perspective to the story. The ending really took me by surprise but in retrospect is believable.

I will say I am still a little confused by the front cover image of this book.

All in all this is a very creative work and deserves to be rewarded for that.