Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson - Book Review

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson- Book Review

Title: Jacob Have I Loved

Author: Katherine Paterson

Publisher: Harper

Publish Date: 1980

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin, Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, and the better sister. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must figure out who she is... and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow. The remarkable Newbery Medal-winning classic about a painful sibling rivalry and one sister's struggle to make her own way, Jacob Have I Loved is an honest and daring portrayal of adolescence and coming of age.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

I bought this book from the same old secondhand bookstore that I always go to, and picked it up because it won the Newbery Award, as with my previous book. I'm pretty sure I've read this at least once before in sixth grade during a Newbery Medal Reading Challege, but I had no memory of it, so I was able to jump into the book without knowing anything. And boy, was I glad I reread this book-- just like Maniac Magee, this book truly deserves its Newbery Medal, but this time for being such an emotionally honest and descriptive and gut-wrenching story.

Jacob Have I Loved, set in the 1940s in the small fishing town of Rass Island, mainly follows the childhood of Sara Louise Bradshaw, nicknamed "Wheeze" because Caroline used to call her that since she was two. Sara Louise, despite being a few minutes older than Caroline, never gets the spotlight-- it's always sweet Caroline who does. In fact, as she advances through life, the more reason she has to believe that the world is conspiring against her. For one, Caroline's the angel of the family, beautiful and talented in music and the best singer on the island, and completely overshadows Sara Louise. Sara Louise's only friend, Call, doesn't get her jokes and he is a little simple-minded. Although she's initially very excited about having old Hiram Wallace on the island and likes him very much, Wallace and Call share a sense of humor (which Sara Louise finds very unfunny) and Wallace eventually ends up marrying an old woman (Sara Louise had fantasized about marrying him instead). Even when she is older, her grandmother endlessly pesters the entire family with a neverending stream of indirect jabs and hateful comments via carefully selected bible passages. When Call comes back from the army (ww2 has ended), Sara Louise finds out that Call and Caroline are engaged, ending her dreams of Call coming to marry Sara herself.

Throughout the emotional turmoil that is Sara Louise's childhood, she grows up to go to nursing school and become a nurse/midwife in a village where she eventually marries, while Caroline gets accepted into Julliard and lives with Call. 

The whole story was so emotionally charged with hope, loss, despair, anger, but most of all the feeling of injustice. When the people in life go away from you, never knowing they've dashed your hopes. When people can be accidentally so mean, when they're just being themselves and happy. When you are exasperated at everyone, but you don't know how to relieve that anger. When you hate somebody's snide bible-abusing comments so much you want to throw a string bean jar at her head. When you think God hates you but loves your sibling, just like he hated Esau but loved Jacob. This was arguably the best aspect of the story, the simple and honest telling of children's feelings. 

Another part of the story I loved was the ending, where the now-adult Sara Louise (remember, she's a nurese-midwife now) is helping the birth of twins, the first of whom come out nicely but the second baby is having problems. The second baby, near death, is miraculously revived by Sara Louise, but at the last moment she remembers the first baby and sees to it that he is also well cared for. This is a callback to the birth story of Sara Louise and Caroline themselves, with Sara Louise being the forgotten problemless firstborn and Caroline being the near-death baby everyone remembered. It was fulfilling and satisfactory to see Sara remembering the first baby, caring for him. 

Altogether this was such a magnificent life story of a child's growing up with life being what it is-- having moments of great joy one moment, then hearing devastating news the next. The ending was meaningful and Maybe I'll go on a Newbery Spree and keep reading more Newbery Medal books that I've forgotten from sixth grade.

 

I would recommend this book for grade 4 and up, it is a beautiful bildungsroman with honest potrayals of child life and its injustices.

Rating: I would give this a 5/5 - a heart-wrenching story about life's injustices, and the inability to do anything about it since it's not the other's fault. This deserves its Newbery Medal, just like Maniac Magee.