The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Published Febuary 26, 2013
Read March 19-27, 2025
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Let me start by saying that I think the idea for this book was fantastic. And I think it was horribly executed.
First problem, way too much happening! I am the biggest person for dual or multi POV books and views of the story. But this was way too much. Picoult tried to take on too much in one story. The FBI agent, the grandaughter, the grandmother, the Nazi, the bakery, the romance, the homewrecking, the grandmother’s book. Choose like two or three, maybe four, but after that, scratch the rest. It was one, too much to follow, and two, every side was underwritten because her time and attention was so divided, she couldn’t write anything decent for any side of it.
Second complaint, there are so many stories of Concentration Camp survivors and reading them is a great way to educate yourself. But there are so many nonfiction stories that this fiction story, didn’t do much. There were no stories in the Concentration Camp that couldn’t be told similarly in a real survivors story. I think it is important to read the nonfiction for this subject.
Third problem, Picoult spent all this time setting up Joseph as this ex-Nazi. You had the PERFECT platform to write an almost one of a kind story about the Holocaust from the perspective of a Nazi. And you didn’t. So many interesting things could have been told and a point of view to educate the world on how we got in that situation and how we could never again. But instead, you wrote the same thing that is, honestly, better told from a true, real survivors point of view.
If you loved this book, amazing! Ignore me, continue reading and I’m glad you enjoyed it. But if you are looking something to read, head what I wrote above and consider before reading. Anyway, just one opinion in all truth!
-Nina
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