Keeping Faith: A Filofax Sighting

One of the first paragraphs of Jodi Picoult’s Keeping Faith goes as follows: “I do not like surprises.  I live by lists.  In fact, I often imagine my life like a September loose-leaf binder—neatly slotted and tabbed, with everything still in place… To this end, every day of the week has a routine.”

My first thought was, Wow, could this be me?  But no.  I do in fact like surprises (like new planners!).  The story doesn’t relate to me at all except that the main character is very orderly and neat.  The story is about a little girl who seems to be experiencing stigmata.  The book asks the obvious questions: Is she?  Isn’t she?  Can you prove it?  Can you disprove it?  Is her mother causing the bleeding hands?  Will she lose custody?  Is there some sort of crime involved?

I liked the book well enough, but it wasn’t one of my favorites of Picoult’s.  There are others I like much better.  But I thought the topic was a great one—one that could be discussed at length.

But the best line of the book is this: “Metz folds the leather binding of his Filofax.  ‘I’ll be here.’”

Yay!  A Filofax mention! 

But folding the binding?  I certainly hope all that refers to is that he folds it open, as opposed to folding it back.  That would indeed be a crime!