Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult ~ Book Review

Dianne O'Toole is an associate specialist with Sotheby's auction house specializing in art.  She is moving up in her career and if she can land a prestigious sale with a high profile client she is looking at a huge promotion.  Her personal life is also looking good.  Her boyfriend, Finn, is a surgical resident at a New York city hospital, and they have booked a dream trip to Galapagos Islands.  Dianne is pretty sure Finn will propose at some point during the trip.  Life couldn't be better.  But when a virus that was ripping through other parts of the world appears in New York city days before their departure, Finn is told he has to stay to work and help.  He encourages Dianne to go on the trip anyway in order to not waste the non-refundable adventure.  Against her better judgement, Dianne relents and goes.  When Dianne arrives in Galapagos, she finds the island emptying of people frantically trying to get off the island and get home due to rumors of the spreading virus.  Against against her better judgement and going out of character, she decides to stay for the adventure.  But then the island literally shuts down and the option to leave is no more and she is stuck not knowing the language, running out of money, and with little to no cell service.  Completely isolated, she makes a connection with a troubled teenager and her grandmother.  Meanwhile back home, Finn is in a battle he never imagined he would face as a doctor.

I picked this book up in a Free Little Library after Faith (from Gold in the Clouds ) encouraged me to try one more book from this author after I really, really  disliked the only other one I had previously read.  And wow, this one really captured me.  Dealing with the Covid pandemic, the author, through myriads of interviews with doctors & nurses, covid survivors, and others that covid touched was able to weave a story that kept me glued from beginning to end.  She was able to not only capture the fear and craziness of the pandemic but also the effects of the isolation that it caused for many.  I was totally engrossed in Finn's side of the story showing the medical professionals point of view as they battled in the trenches trying to get a handle on what was going on.  I thought the author was very successful in bringing out their frustration and exhaustion and how it affected them as professionals in the medical field.   And then in exploring the effects of isolation that the world had to endure, the author was able to balance the story with the harmful effects of the severe isolation some felt by stranding the character on an island far from home and loved ones.   I found it hard to put the book down as my emotions were so engaged seeing all viewpoints of the pandemic story.  I also learned a lot about parts of surviving covid that you didn't hear a lot about then or now.  Some interesting details in the story.  And a twist that left me stunned.  The only parts I didn't engage with was some of the Darwinian theory parts.  We are left to ask ourselves how has this experience we have all lived through in one fashion or another changed us, personally and as a society?  Has it made us better?  The book is filled with numerous quotable insights but I loved this quote from the author's notes:

"When I try to make sense of the past year, it feels to me like the world pressed pause.  When we stopped moving, we noticed that the ways we have chosen to validate ourselves are lists of items or experiences we need to have, goals that are monetary or mercenary.  Now, I'm wondering why those were ever even goals.  We don't need those things to feel whole.  We need to wake up in the morning.  We need our bodies to function.  We need to enjoy a meal.  We need a roof over our head.  We need to surround ourselves with people we love.  We need to take the wins in a much smaller way."

pg. 317

May we always remember this. This book was written in 2021 and I read it in 2023.  So a year out of the pandemic, and human being humans, I'm afraid I'm already seeing generally, a reverting back to our old ways and attitudes in a lot of areas, chasing those same old goals.  And that makes me sad.  

So I ended up loving this story.  Will it make me pick up another book by this author?  Probably at some point.

I gave it a 9.5/10