Janeology by Karen Harrington
Janeology by Karen Harrington is a lot of books rolled into one. It’s a ripped from the headlines legal thriller, it’s paranormal, it’s a crime novel, it’s a character study, it’s family history and a look at nature vs. nurture.
Jane, mother of twins, snaps one day and kills one child and almost succeeds in killing the other. When asked why, her response is “I was done being a mother.” After prosecuting Jane, her husband Tom is brought to trial under the charges of failure of protecting his children. The prosecution feels that as Jane’s husband he should be able to predict her actions and therefore is also at fault.
Tom’s attorney takes a radical approach to his defense and creates a case that builds upon the idea that Jane’s genealogy is the cause of her violence. It’s built into her genes to be an ineffective and bad mother. Being predisposed to the disease, there was no way to predict if or when it would emerge. The question is asked: What comes first, the mother or the murderer?
But little is known of Jane’s past. Not even Tom knows anything about the family he married into. A women comes forward who through her power of retrocognition, is able to see the past and tell us eight separate stories of Jane’s ancestors, from her parents to great-grandparents. Each story reveals that Jane’s family history is riddled with bad parenting and instability.
I enjoyed Janeology because the premise was really interesting. Whenever you watch the news and hear how another mother has killed her children, we always ask, how in the world could they do that? I can not even imagine what it must take to chase your child around the house and then drown them. And not even to doubt your actions or bring yourself back to reality halfway through the act. What is it that brings out the worst in a mother? How does one go from being a fiercely protective mother to becoming their greatest enemy?
As a mother to two small boys myself I was expecting this to be a really difficult emotional read. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that was not the case. Coming into the story well after the murders have taken place, I felt no attachment to the children. Tom, Jane’s wife, is supposed to be devastated. But I had a hard time connecting with his grief because there is very little memory between him and his children. Nor does he seem to care about his surviving child as he should. He talks the talk but I wasn’t sure he walked the walk. I would have liked more interaction between his surviving child and more memories of his murdered one. Janeology is told through Tom’s point of view, which works but I really wanted to know what Jane was thinking. Isn’t that what we all want to know? It’s all a guessing game. But isn’t that supposed to be the point in the first place? What in the world was this woman thinking when she made the decision to drown her children and even did a practice run on the family dog?! There really is no good answer.
I loved the back stories about Jane’s family. Each could have easily have read as its own story. They were great character studies and I love the idea about how the way great-grandparents act and think makes a direct effect upon the descendant. My only apprehension was having these stories told through a clairvoyant which took me out of the story and gave me a feeling of unbelievability to it. I would have rather seen these stories revealed through journal or diary entries, which I could have dealt with much easier. But regardless, the outcome is still the same.
Janeology is worth taking a look at. It’s almost hard to categorize it’s genre because it’s a great mixture of courtroom drama, a look into Jane’s family history, and a bit of the paranormal.
I’m really excited to have Karen Harrington, author of Janeology, here tomorrow for a great guest blog. She shares a wonderful solution for over stressed parents who are afraid that the day they might snap could turn deadly. Watch for it! Karen Harrington’s website and blog.
So what do you think? Can somebody be predisposed to kill? Who’s to blame? The mother? The father? Her ancestors? Or is it in the genes?
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Tags: E-H Author, female author, Fiction, I-L Title, published 2008, review copy
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This book is on my wish list. I do think some people are what they used to call a "bad seed," but I also think environment affects behavior. So, I'm not sure who to blame.
on October 13th, 2008 at 3:58 pmI have a copy of Karen's book that I am really looking forward to getting to in the next month or two. I looove her blog, it is consistantly one of my favorites. Even though her guest post topic doesn't sound as 'fun' as most of her blog entries, I'll be very interested to read it!
on October 13th, 2008 at 7:23 pmI liked this book as well. It was not a mix of styles I was used to, but it worked for the book.
on October 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm[...] Comments Kim L on Janeology by Karen HarringtonJordan M on Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth GilbertNatasha Maw on Abandoned Book, X-Indian Chronicles by [...]
on October 14th, 2008 at 12:21 amI really liked this book too. I just reviewed it yesterday as well. Great minds think alike I guess
on October 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pmWow this sounds fascinating and after reading your review I’m adding it to my TBR pile. Thanks!
on October 14th, 2008 at 3:32 pmWhoa, the premise does sound really interesting! I think it’s hard to say who is to blame, I think I’m leaning more toward the mother though.
on October 14th, 2008 at 9:13 pmI think that it’s obviously something nature or nurture in the mother herself when this happens, because not all of us do these things, but I think that one of our biggest problems is how isolated women are during childrearing years. It used to be, and in some places still is, common for families to have the support of a tribe, a village, an extended family. Now we have SAHM so isolated in their homes with their children, and working mothers so stressed from the demands of the two completely separate lives they’re living.
I also think that there is often abuse from the father or other male figure in the household, whether it’s abuse of the children or the mother, that creates such stress in a woman that she snaps. And when this happens, the man often gets off with no consequences at all because the horror of what the mother has done overshadows or completely obscures what he was doing.
And then there is often the fact that the mother in question had no role model for effective parenting in her own childhood, so she feels completely at a loss to know how to cope, and without the extended family, tribe, etc, I mentioned earlier, she just had no idea how to function in this new role.
And then there’s postpartum depression, which is stigmatized and hushed up in our society. I’ve had several friends with serious ppd and I didn’t have any idea until much later when they were ready to admit it, because women feel shame when they’re depressed instead of overjoyed about being mothers as they expected to be.
I just hope this book takes into account all these complex factors and more and doesn’t oversimplify the possible contributing problems. The main thing I hate about Jodi Picoult, for example, is the frustrating way she really simplifies and black/whites extremely complex issues.
on October 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pmI scored a copy of this from paperbackswap after reading Lisa’s (books on the brain) review. I’m glad you liked it too. This is a really fascinating subject. Do I think it’s in the genes. Hard to say. Some mental illness is genetic, and this sort of behavior obviously comes from a chemically unbalanced person, in my opinion.
on October 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 pmGreat review! This book is on my wish list, and I hope to get a chance to read it soon. You raise some interesting questions. I have no idea who to blame. Glad to know that the reader is a bit removed from the children; I was worried about how, as a mom, I would feel reading the book. I’m all for emotional reads, so I’d read it either way, but it’s good to know.
on October 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 ami think i’ll like the story but probably won’t connect to well to the characters. i’ll give it a shot. i mean.. what way is there other than to pick it up to know if you might like it or not?
on October 26th, 2008 at 4:44 pmKathy – I do think intelligence does have something to do with it and agree that the environment does shape us.
Jen – I’ve just subscribed to Karen’s blog and have been enjoying it.
Kim L. – I’m glad that you liked it.
Rebecca – I suppose so!
Kimberly – Oh good!
Ladytink_534 – In this case, I don’t think the father is to blame, but I think it would be a case by case basis.
Dewey – Karen does take into account all of the things you talked about, especially the isolation of SAHM, lack of good parenting examples, and postpartum. I agree with the the isolation of SAHM especially as I feel like I’m one of them. I guess that’s why I enjoy blogging so much.
Tara – I agree that chemical unbalance does have to do with lack of parenting skills but wonder what causes us to just “snap.”
Anna – I did feel removed from the children. We didn’t really know them or witness any of the abuse.
Ginger – I think you would enjoy this one more as an adult. For you particularly, I wouldn’t rush out for it.
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