WISH YOU WERE HERE: BOOK REVIEW
It was only a matter of time before books about the COVID-19 pandemic were written and received enough attention to make their way onto the bestseller list. Jodi Picoult’s most recent novel, Wish You Were Here, has topped the charts. Picoult’s Wish You Were Here feels simultaneously relatable and safe. The book follows its protagonist, Diana O’Toole, as she faces problems when her life plan to get a promotion, be married at 30, and have kids by 35 begins to seem impossible and unappealing. When I picked up this book, I felt ready to relive the early days of the pandemic — a time when we were still unable to purchase N95 masks because of shortages in hospitals and people were panicked buying toilet paper. I was curious to see how this period in our recent history would be represented and was pleasantly surprised by the many twists and turns Picoult took me on as a reader.
The story begins right as COVID-19 touches down in New York. The public isn’t wearing masks and keeping 6 feet apart yet, but the subways are empty. Diana is an art historian chasing a promotion at Sotheby’s. Diana is first introduced to us when she attempts to coax a seller to agree to an auction, and the seller, Kitomi Ito, cites concerns over the pandemic. Diana scoffs. She thinks what we were all thinking: that there are hardly any cases and it will all die down in a matter of time. She only sees the seller’s reluctance as a momentary setback. I came to realize at that moment just how difficult it might be to read this book knowing what I know now about the pandemic and where we have ended up so far. Diana’s inner monolog holds no shortage of ironic moments like this one, that made me sigh and remember my own pre-pandemic naïveté.
Diana and her boyfriend, Finn, intend to go on a fantastic vacation to the Galapagos shortly after Diana plans to convince the seller to send her painting to auction. Diana spends an awful lot of time focusing on what she should be doing, and these self-imposed guidelines end up holding her back more often than they help her move forward. She goes on the vacation, not aware of the risks or the impending travel ban — even refusing to see the signs that this trip was not meant to be. Limited ferry trips and tourists fleeing should have been a sign. Diana becomes stranded in the Galapagos and nothing is open.
The first half of the book details how Diana spends her time on Isabela Island, the relationships she forms, and her desperation to reconnect with Finn. He’s still back in New York, a resident on the front lines of the pandemic. After Diana has been on the island with no hope of getting home for over a month, we finally discover that she has actually been sick with COVID-19 the entire time. She fell ill the night after her visit to Kitomi Ito and had to be hospitalized. None of her Galapagos adventures even happened — or did they? Diana pursues a half-baked theory involving alternative lives, but never lands on a conclusion.
When I reached the second half of the book, I felt conflicted. Picoult paints Diana’s life on the Galapagos in such rich and compelling detail that when we come back to Diana’s life in New York, the stark contrast is even more jarring. I felt disappointed and betrayed, but maybe that’s the point. When Picoult evokes this feeling in us, it helps the reader empathize with Diana’s desire to prove that she really did go to the Galapagos. It was real to Diana, so it needed to be real to us.
This book masquerades as a fun escape from the pandemic, but ends up being so much more than that. Diana’s life is deeply disrupted by the pandemic, something many of us can relate to. Experiencing the Galapagos, although arguably not something that actually happened, helped Diana understand what she needed to do in order to be happy in our new post-pandemic reality — similar realizations I’m sure we’ve all had in the last year.