THE STORYTELLER by Jodi Picoult (fic)

Jodi Picoult is a storyteller herself, and if you read her books you will find yourself turning pages becoming immersed in the story.  That is the best I can say of her style of writing.  She generally chooses a social issue and builds her story around it.  I have only read one other novel by her, so I should not make broad generalities about her writing.  As regards this book, it is long, and the story meanders all over the place.  The characters are not well developed, and Sage the center of the story, is not particularly likable.  The plot is filled with coincidences that are improbable. 

Sage Singer is a Jewish girl living in a small town where she meets Josef Weber, an old German man who frequents the bakery where she works.  Sage is scarred mentally and physically by an automobile accident and has isolated herself emotionally from those around her.  Weber confesses to Sage that he is living under a false name, and that he is responsible for numerous deaths and atrocities committed at Auschwitz during World War II.  He asks Sage to help him die, as he finds it too painful to live with his guilt. It so happens that Sage has a grandmother, Minka, who was a prisoner at Auschwitz.  There is a long middle section that tells the grandmother's story, and that is the only interesting part of the novel.

The rest of the novel borders on the ridiculous.  There is a story of a vampire embedded within, which seems to have no connection with Sage, until the reader discovers that the grandmother, Minka, kept a notebook in which she wrote this other story.  Bringing this vampire story into the book, doesn't make much sense.  Further it seems silly to suppose that a hardened and vicious SS officer would have any interest in keeping Minka alive to find out what happens next in her writing. 

Sage's relationship with a married funeral director and a subsequent relationship with a government agent who tracks down war criminals are contrived to fit the plot line.  Neither are well-developed or have the depth to add to the story of Sage's relationship with Josef.

I cannot recommend this book unless the reader is an ardent fan of Picoult and is comfortable with the many contrivances of the plot line.