Bestselling author Jodi Picoult here brings the lives and concerns of lesbian prospective moms to a mainstream audience in an engaging and sympathetic way, as she also tries to educate readers about some of the real-life legal and social barriers same-sex couples face (or faced when the book was published in 2011).
The story begins with protagonist Zoe married to her husband Max and struggling to conceive a child. The strain of their fertility problems becomes too much, and they divorce. Later, Zoe finds herself unexpectedly in love with another woman, Vanessa. Max, meanwhile, falls back into the alcoholism he has long fought, until he finds help through a right-wing evangelical church. This sets up a confrontation with Zoe and Vanessa as they marry in Massachusetts and decide to start their own family in Rhode Island—and want to use the frozen embryos Zoe and Max had created and stored. A spunky fictional attorney from the real-life Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) plays a prominent role.
The book also comes with a companion CD, a “soundtrack” with a song for each chapter, with lyrics by Picoult and music composed and sung by her friend Ellen Wilber. It sounds gimmicky, but in fact fits with Zoe’s job as a music therapist—one who uses music as a clinical tool to reach patients with mental or emotional problems.
Picoult writes with convincing honesty on her Web site about her gay friends and her belief that being gay is as natural as being straight. “People are always afraid of the unknown,” she says. “I’ve noticed that most people who oppose gay rights don’t have a personal connection to someone who is gay.” This compelled her to write the book and “to create a lesbian character that readers could truly get to know.” In the process, she interviewed same-sex couples to learn more about coming out and the legal and social struggles they faced—and this shows in the believable characters and scenes she has developed. She also did extensive research into and interviews with anti-LGBTQ organizations and their rhetoric, giving her an in-depth knowledge of arguments against marriage equality and gay parents that makes her story all the more powerful. During the time she was writing the story, her own son came out as gay.
If the book sometimes feels jammed with too many Big Social Issues—same-sex marriage, alcoholism, abortion, suicidal teens—Picoult is a good enough writer to weave them into a coherent and compelling tale, rotating among the perspectives of Zoe, Vanessa, and Max.
There is one false step, however—and while it is a very small part of the book, it is worth noting. In one scene, Zoe has just admitted to Vanessa a secret from long ago. Vanessa was upset that Zoe had kept the information hidden, but they are now trying to make up. The exchange is from Zoe’s perspective:
“I wasn’t trying to keep a secret from you,” I tell her.
“But you should be able to. I love you so much that there’s nothing you could possibly tell me that would change that.”
“I used to be a guy,” I say, straight-faced.
“Deal breaker.” Vanessa laughs, and she leans forward and kisses me.
It is a throwaway exchange, and nothing more is said on the topic—but could be read as transphobic, even though it’s clearly a joke. More than a decade after Sing You Home, however, Picoult co-wrote a novel with bestselling author Jennifer Finney Boylan, a trans woman and advocate, which includes a significant trans character. I’m going to assume Boylan would not have worked with her if she was transphobic. I’ll give Picoult the benefit of the doubt and simply call the passage ill-advised.
That aside, Sing You Home is a terrific tale of queer women fighting to become mothers in the face of hate from anti-LGBTQ groups at a pivotal time in LGBTQ history.
