Just two years ago, in my review of Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, I related that “when a friend and former library co-worker basically sniffed her disapproval when I told her I liked Jodi Picoult’s books, our friendship was changed forever.” I worked for several years in public libraries and tried not to be judgmental of people’s reading preferences, or to let the fact that someone thought Danielle Steel wrote great literature to negatively impact my opinion of them. But really, I don’t get it. I know JP is writing for a mass market – and sometimes her resolutions might be just a bit too neat for snooty readers. But I’ll admit right up front, I am a sucker for a well-plotted story that makes me think about a social issue or two along the way.
Now that I’ve finished reading The Book of Two Ways, I keep thinking about it. So that’s a good thing. On the other hand, the protagonist, Dawn Edelstein, really annoyed me near the end of the book…so not such a good thing. I learned a LOT about Egyptology. Good thing. A bit more than I wanted to know…hmmm, not great. So I’m still not sure how to rate it…maybe by the time I finish this, it will all be clear to me?
Dawn is on a plane that crashes, and she is one of the few survivors. Just before the crash, thoughts flashed through her mind…surprisingly, not of her physicist husband Brian or her daughter Meret, but of Wyatt. Fifteen years earlier, Dawn was a grad student in Egypt, working alongside Wyatt on her doctorate from Yale when she got a call that her mother was dying. She flew home, cared for her mother in hospice (where she met and fell in love with Brian), then found herself in debt and responsible for her young brother. Unable to continue her studies, she married, had a child, and became a death doula – a career she has been dedicated to for years. When the airline offers the survivors of the crash transportation to anywhere they want to go, she heads for Egypt rather than home to Boston. At the time of the crash, she’s nearing forty: “…I blow my nose and look in the mirror. I’m at the age where that’s a surprise.” She’s clearly looking to answer the “what if?” question as to what her life would have been like if she had taken another path.
There are two huge subjects, each related to one of the men in her life: Egyptology and physics. TBH, in the Egypt chapters, there was a boatload of detail (including drawings) about pharaohs, coffins, burial, excavation…you get the idea. Her thesis was about the “…book of Two Ways, the first known map of the afterlife.” The detail is voluminous (Jodi definitely does her research) and isn’t particularly dense or difficult to understand. For example, talking about festivals, she writes “…mostly, they would get drunk and have sex—it was like Coachella, every time the Nile overflowed.”
Her husband Brian, the physicist, is a terrific character. He clearly adores Dawn (although not always expressed exactly as she would like). There were several passages about his field (quantum physics) that could have been dull and beyond comprehension for the average reader, but he explains the concepts in a way that is clear and concise. I loved it, even reading several aloud to anyone who would listen (LOL, being in lockdown, there’s only one target at this time! But my husband agreed about these passages.
In addition to Egyptology and Physics, the third topic is death, and there are many opportunities to discuss various aspects of death as the Dawn’s chosen path led her to her career as a death doula. Working with a client, she is asked what happens after death and responds “I have no idea. … But then again, in utero, we probably can’t imagine any other existence. And once we get here, we don’t remember that.”
Discussing the fear of death, Dawn wonders “Why are people so afraid of dying? Well, that’s easy. Because it’s hard for us to conceive of a world without us in it.” And“…we do a shitty job of intellectually and emotionally preparing for death, How can you enjoy life if you spend every minute fearing the end of it?”
Dawn believes that “No one knows what to say to someone who’s dying. Everyone is afraid of saying the wrong thing. It’s more important to be there than to be right.” (This totally resonated with me personally, as I have seen it be very true for a person diagnosed with a serious illness.) She counsels caregivers as well, providing good advice when she says there are “…five things we need to say to people we love before they die…I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye.”
The unique thing about the book is that as her story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures are told side by side, leaving her character (and the reader) to confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What makes a life well lived? What is left after we die? Are we making choices, or do our choices make us who we are?
I don’t do spoilers, so I won’t go into her dilemma or the way it is resolved in the book. I’ll just say that even though I was SUPER annoyed with Dawn, this will be great for book clubs, will be loved by Jodi Picoult fans, and will likely earn her some new fans. Five stars, and thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review.