The Book of Two Ways: not a typical Jodi Picoult story

 The Book of Two Ways is the newest book by bestselling author, Jodi Picoult. It is the story of Dawn Edelstein who survives a plane crash. In a single moment everything changes that as she prepares for the crash landing, her thoughts are not about her husband or daughter of a man she hasn’t seen in fifteen years. After the crash, she is given the option to be taken anywhere she wants to go. She knows she should go home to her husband and daughter but instead she hops on a plane to Cairo, Egypt where Wyatt Armstrong is an archaeologist studying the ancient burial sites. She wants to continue the work she left behind in Egypt as she was studying the Book of Two Ways, the first known map of the afterlife. It also means confronting her and Wyatt’s unresolved history. As the story unfolds, Dawn has two possible futures ahead of her and she confronts questions of what a life well-lived looks like, what do we leave behind when we leave this earth, and do we make choices or do our choices make us?

I have been a fan of Jodi Picoult’s for many years and I eagerly delved into The Book of Two Ways. Unfortunately, after the excitement of the opening chapter, I was quickly bored as the story gets bogged down with so much detailed information of hieroglyphs, Egyptian cultures, and quantum physics. It is a book about love and loss, life and death, and Egypt. Lots and lots of Egypt. The overload of information caused me to lose track of where I was in the story and how the information even fits into the story. This overload overpowers the emotional, human aspects that is usually characteristic of her books. It was hard to care for Dawn and her journey. At one point, she has sex with her husband after an argument and her husband thinks everything is fine, she proclaims that just because she had sex with him, everything was not fine. So why have sex with him? It is just one example of eyerolling moments. As a fan of Ms. Picoult, I say give The Book of Two Ways a pass.

 

The Book of Two Ways is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.