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Plain Truth | 
 enlarge | Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.13
You Save: $14.87 (99%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  262 reviews
Sales Rank: 77954
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0671776134
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780671776138
ASIN: 0671776134
Publication Date: April 3, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A shocking murder shatters the picturesque calm of Pennsylvania's Amish country, and tests the heart and soul of the lawyer who steps in to defend the young woman at the centre of the storm...The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen year old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania to defend Katie, two cutures collide, and, for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live 'plain', Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within, to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past re-enters her life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 257 more reviews...
 Interesting read, but not one of her highlights November 18, 2008
After reading my first novel by Picoult, My Sister's Keeper, which simply was a brilliant book, I was keen on reading Plain Truth, which turned out to be a little disappointing. The idea of writing about an Amish girl who secretly gives birth to a baby and is accused of murder because the baby is found dead the next morning is undoubtedly great and worth to be explored. However, the way Picoult develops the story and portrays the characters is not as good it could have been.
The main point is that I do not know much more about Amish culture. I heard several things about Amish people and saw them when I was living in Pennsylvania for a while, but after reading Picoult's novel, I cannot say that I know much more about them.
The second aspect is that the relationship between the Amish girl, Katie, and the non-Amish guy, Adam, who got her pregnant does not receive the author's attention as much as it should. Later in the book when Adam and Katie meet again, they exchange a couple of sentences, but it is hard to believe that they had/have deep feelings for each other.
At the end of the book, it looks like Picoult was just happy to get done after so many pages so that she wrapped up the story as quickly as possible and did not bother spending more time on keeping the slow pace that accompanied the reader throughout the book. If she had not ended the book so quickly, she would have had time to give the Katie's relationship to Adam the time it needed.
Another aspect that I regard as exaggeration in Picoult's novels is that the suspects always decide to speak in court to finally tell the truth. Katie all of a sudden tells the truth in front of the judge and the jury, although the attorney try to prevent that. Also in Picoult's other novels, the very same scene takes place. This just does not seem natural. The suspects do not care about going to prison any longer, they just want to tell the truth. Seeing this scene reappear in each of her books makes it too much. At first, Katie pretends that she cannot even remember that she was pregnant, and all of a sudden - against her attorney's advice -, she wants to tell the truth - and does not care about getting convicted any longer. This is much too fictional.
And the last point I would like to raise is that I do think that Picoult is a very good writer, but that I personally prefer reading the German translations, as to me, they read much better than her own writing style. Plain Truth was the only book by her that I read in English, and I found that for me her writing style was not as appealing as reading her other books in German. In fact, I found Plain Truth a little boring, and it was only when the trial started that I became interested in it again. I have not read it in German, but I think that I would have enjoyed it much more in this language.
Altogether, Plain Truth is an interesting read, but unfortunately not one of the highlights she has published.
Good, but not great November 14, 2008
I've read a few books by Jodi Picoult, some I loved, Nineteen Minutes, Perfect Match, and Salem Falls, some I didn't, My Sister's Keeper, and some just fall in between, Harvesting the Heart. But, when I heard about Plain Truth, I had a feeling that this would be an amazing book. I'm not too familiar with the Amish lifestyle, so I thought this would be a good book to open up my knowledge about them.
The book starts off with Katie Fisher, a young unwed Amish girl, giving birth to a baby in the middle of the night. When morning breaks, her father and his workers find a baby, dead in the haystacks. The police are called in and at first, they believe that the child died in birth, but pretty soon they realize that murder is afoot and their prime suspect is Katie.
Katie denies giving birth, despite the overwhelming evidence proving otherwise, and fights with the police as they take her in. Ellie Hathaway, a defence attorney who just won an acquittal and broke up with her boyfriend, runs off to her aunt's house for a much needed break. When her aunt tells her about Katie, Ellie jumps in and defends Katie.
The court, respectful of Katie's religion, allows Katie to stay on house arrest until the trial happens, only if Ellie agrees to stay there with her, leaving Ellie in a place that she doesn't understand and doesn't fit in. In order to work on her defence, she needs the help of Katie, who is unwilling to open up and share her dark secrets with a stranger, even if that stranger is her cousin.
I enjoyed reading about how the relationship between Ellie and Katie blossomed. I felt like they formed a strong sister-life bond and it was nice seeing Katie happy when talking with Ellie. However, when it came to the men in their life, I had a very different feeling.
With Katie, I couldn't really sympathize with her at all, when it came to the men in her life. In the book, she cheated on her childhood sweetheart, Samuel, with a man from the `outside.' She doesn't really think of anything about it and continues seeing her outside boyfriend, when she visits her brother, and when she's back home she continues her relationship with Samuel.
When Samuel finds out about the other relationship, he keeps his distance and tries to forget about Katie. He loves her, but he's just angry and hurt about her betrayal. Katie, however, acts like she didn't really do anything wrong and I felt like she didn't really understand why he was hurt over what she did. The relationship was a sweet one though and I ended up really liking the character of Samuel. He's a true gentleman.
With Ellie, I just felt that her problems with Coop were a little non-existent compared to the way she made it out to be. The two were going out before, and then when Coop wanted to advance their relationship, Ellie ran away. Ellie just broke up with her long time boyfriend after realizing that nothing would ever happen between them. When Ellie starts to hook up with Coop and realize her feelings are there and strong, yet she still tries to push him away. I knew they were going to get together, but I just felt that compared to the drama between the couples in Perfect Match and Salem Falls, for example, this wasn't that big of an issue.
I know I shouldn't be comparing between the two, but it just seems hard not to. With Perfect Match, the couple had to deal with the wife killing a man who she thought sexually molested her child, and in Salem Falls, the boyfriend is a registered sex offender and his girlfriend has issues with getting over her daughter death. Ellie's problem was commitment issues...I just didn't get it.
I mentioned before that I've read a few books by Jodi, so while I reading this I've pretty much realized she tends to use same formula for every book. The main one is a twist at the end. Despite my feelings with this, I did find that with each book the twist worked, even if I hated it. With this, it just felt weird and it didn't make sense. I know there were subtle hints and clues throughout the novel, but the character's motivations for doing this didn't sit too well with me, especially, with the way said character was developed.
I know it sounds like I didn't like the novel, but I actually did. Jodi did a lot of research about the Amish way of life and it showed. That and the relationship between Ellie and Katie are what saved this novel for me and made me finish it. Jodi is a strong writer and a good storyteller and she made the book flow nicely, I just wish that the overall execution of it was a little bit better.
3.5/5
 My favorite Picoult novel to date - November 13, 2008
I've always been fascinated by the Amish. As a little girl, I would read stories about Amish children and their lives so when I began this novel I thought I had a decent understanding of why this situation would be so shocking to the Amish community if it were real. As it turns out, my reading prior to this story had only scraped the surface of what it means to live Plain - and, in turn, what it would mean if a Plain young woman was accused of smothering her illegitimate child.
Katie's story was completely heart-wrenching for me. Picoult did a wonderful job of portraying all the physical and emotional reactions that a sheltered 18-year-old might have if thrown into this type of situation. Toss into the mix a strong-willed female lawyer who anyone would be lucky to have fighting on his or her side, a steamy psychiatrist and some very interesting plot twists and you've got a hit of astronomic proportions.
feels like a young adult novel November 6, 2008
After reading two other Jodi Picoult novels, I was pretty disappointed with this. It was simplistic and predictable, and felt as it had been written for 14 year-old readers. The main character is supposed to be a sharp and successful lawyer, and I was frustrated with how foolish and slow she could be at times. The emotional manipulation was so obvious that is was painful at other times. Yet the story was somewhat interesting, and I kept at it until the end. While I enjoyed it to some degree, I feel almost embarrassed to admit that. The fact is, Jodi Picoult is much better when writing about people and surroundings from her modern world. She can make believable stories and characters, but didn't this time. The Amish world was interesting, but I feel more like someone told me about it rather than having lived in it, as I should do is a better novel. This barely earned three stars from me.
Unfocused October 15, 2008
This could have been an excellent novel, but it isn't. The basic story is that of an Amish girl who gets pregnant out of wedlock and is charged with murdering her newborn son. The author should have focused on that, but she tries to draw parallels with the sex life of the lawyer who defends the Amish girl on a charge of neonaticide. Rather than parallels all we have are distractions. I realize that extraneous sex scenes are the way such books are done now, but it is still a mistake. I don't object to sex scenes, per se; I object to authors trying to entertain readers with them when the sex scenes are for prurient purposes only.
I didn't really care about the defense lawyer's love affairs while she was in college, or her affairs while she is working on the defense of the girl. It added up to padding and diluted the central plot.
Somehow I wasn't quite sold on the author's knowledge of the Amish ways. On one hand the Amish reject modern ways, but in this book they accept several modern ways--without explanation. Orange juice, for a smaller example. Certainly the Amish can buy orange juice at the market, but it is not natural to their rural Pennsylvania environment, and such exceptions needed to be at least noted.
I was also taken aback by some of the errors of language. For example, there are no cement barn floors. If there were, they would be awfully dusty. Ditto for sidewalks, pillars, etc. The correct word is concrete. Cement is what binds the aggregate. Also, there are several cases where the subjunctive form of the verb is called for but does not appear. Exact words are the basic tools for any good writer, and when they are used in a sloppy manner, the result is marred, even if a reader is not quite sure why.
The characters are mostly okay, except for the "Englisch," who are often annoying. The atmosphere of the Amish farm feels right. But the biggest flaw is with the padded plot. Remove about 100 pages and this would be a much improved novel.
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