Stories about couples that break up because one of the partners has run off with someone else are pretty commonplace, but a story about a couple that gets a divorce because the husband decides to shack up with a pack of wolves has got to raise a few eyebrows.
Lone Wolf follows the story of zoologist Luke Warren who spends most of his adult life wallowing in his obsession with wolves. He finally decides to leave behind his family and to infiltrate a wolf pack in Canada. Two years later, he returns to his two kids, Edward and Cara, and wife, Georgie. However, his wife files for divorce and gets married to new beau Joe. Edward flees to Thailand while Cara decides to live with her father.
Six years later, Luke is involved in a car crash with Cara. Cara escapes narrowly with a few minor injuries, but Luke is lying comatose in a hospital bed with zero prospects of coming back to consciousness. At his mother's request, Edward returns from Thailand and is the only adult who can legally make decisions on his father's behalf.
Edward believes his father should be cut off life support, while seventeen-year-old Cara is desperate to keep her father alive. What appears at first a minor difference in opinions soon turns into violent clashes between family members. Taking family problems to court is par for the course of Jodi Picoult; Edward and Cara both fight for what they believe their father would have wanted.
Picoult's novels have a certain mould. She tends to tell her stories from the perspectives of several characters to add authenticity to her tale. However, Lone Wolf lacks just that. The story is unrealistic and occasionally outright ridiculous. There is actually a part where Edward sneaks a wolf into the hospital as an overgrown dog.
The characters are underdeveloped and the different protagonists don't have distinct voices. Luke isn't done justice; we don't get to understand him as a human. He's only represented through the eyes of his kids and ex-wife. And even then, Edward and Georgie harbour too many ill feelings towards him that you don't get to understand his true personality.
The novel is incredibly predictable and the few twists and turns revealed can be easily guessed. The prospect of Luke never waking up seems too dismal, and the prospect of him waking up seems too surreal. However, Picoult redeems herself with the huge amount of information about wolves incorporated into the novel. It is very interesting to read about the lives of wolves, their relationships and the resemblance they bear to the human world.
Picoult's novels are known for their emotionality, but Lone Wolf goes a little bit over the top. The parts of the novels that were supposed to evoke emotions in the reader ended up being redundant and sappy.
Such output from a staggeringly-talented storyteller is a bit of a letdown, but avid fans of Picoult's work might want to give this novel a shot anyway.
