Jacob Have I Loved

Well, I finished Jacob Have I Loved over the weekend. I am indifferent about it,but I probably lean more towards disliking it than liking it.

The main character, Sarah Louise (or "Wheezy") lives in the Chesapeake Bay on the island of Rass with her slightly younger, beautiful, delicate twin sister Caroline and their parents and senile Grandma. Basically, just like the Jacob and Esau story in the Bible, Caroline seems to have everything and Sarah Louise feels forgotten and cheated out of a good life.

I felt the pain that she feels in growing up and being an awkward teenager and several times that Caroline is blessed by everything that Sarah Louise has always wanted but failed to have I feel the blow. It's a well written story! I just had a hard time sympathizing with Sarah because I think she has a bad attitude and that she was the only one standing in the way of herself and her dreams. Now, she does embark on her own journey off the island and becomes and hero in her new small town but this ending is so abrupt that it doesn't portray any inner changes in Sarah that make me thing she's come around.

I don't know, it wasn't a real redemption story in my heart, and I love redemption stories. If anybody experiences true redemption in this book it is the old captain who returns to the island after years of being held back by shame.

I'm going to do more looking and see if I can find any of the author's notes about this story. I read somewhere, maybe on the newbery blog, that when someone asks her about "Jacob Have I Loved" she'll say "and Esau I have hated". I have to find out more about this! I know she was a missionary's daughter and the scene where Sarah Louise is frantically searching trying to figure out who hated Esau in the Bible is so touching...when she realizes it says God hated him, she transfers that onto herself. the inner struggle that she goes through is tough to read! it was also a very brief part. So, hopefully I'll have more to write about this as I do some research!