In recent years, Jodi Picoult has become known for her writing which seems to take events from the headlines and put a spin to the story that not all is what it seems.  However, her earliest writings had more to do with relationships and what has a tendency to make them fracture.

Harvesting the Heart is one of those early novels.  It is the story of a couple that seems to be as opposite as a couple can be.  Nicholas Prescott is from the good part of town, so to speak.  His wealthy parents have done everything to carve out what seems like the perfect path for him in life, and he’s on the fast track to becoming a world-renowned cardiologist at a Boston hospital.

Enter Paige O’Toole.  Paige hasn’t had a great life, although she’s known love.  Abandoned by her mother at a young age, she grew up with a loving father who doted on her, even if he struggled at times with raising a daughter.  At age 18, though, Paige leaves behind her roots as an Irish-Catholic girl in Chicago and tries to find her place in the world.  She’s also running from a secret that she can’t forgive herself for.

Nicholas and Paige meet at the diner where Paige works.  Paige is different than the women who inhabit Nicholas’ world.  She’s quite ethereal and has a distinctive artistic ability.  The two seem to be as opposite as can be, but buck the odds as well as his parents and get married.  Cut off from his family’s wealth, the two struggle together but carve out a good life. That is, until Paige becomes pregnant which not only puts an added pressure on the young couple but forces Paige to deal with the demons that plagued her and she managed to tamp down.

If you’re expecting the usual Picoult fare ala Nineteen Minutes or Plain Truth, this isn’t it.  There is relevance to the world around us in the circumstances in Paige’s life.  Although not all will agree with her actions, she’s sympathetic as she struggles through life with little guidance.  Many women at one time or another experience the need to find themselves after they lose themselves in taking care of a family and a spouse.  Not all will take the same action as Paige does.  However, it does have a realistic feel to the situation, from someone who has felt that way more than once.

The end quarter or so of Harvesting the Heart is where I struggled with it.  Although I liked how Paige managed to finally carve out a relationship with Nicholas’ parents, the relationship between the two of them vacillated between utterly ridiculous and clichéd.  Nicholas was pretty close to a cardboard character. I saw no surprises from him throughout the book.  While I had the feeling I was supposed to be admiring Paige for standing up for herself at a young age and developing her own individuality, I also felt like she was letting him sit in judgment of her. Picoult leaves the ending open a bit, people can read into it what they want, which I do like, but it felt like a typical cliché that thrust the two of them back onto the canvas together.

I did enjoy Paige’s journey of self-discovery through Harvesting the Heart.  There will be those who take exception to some of the choices she makes, but they weigh on her through the years.  Still, especially for women who find themselves looking in the mirror one day wondering just who that is looking back at them, Paige’s journey is a familiar one.