Product Description

To the outside world, they seem to have it all. Cassie Barrett, a renowned anthropologist, and Alex Rivers, one of Hollywood's hottest actors, met on the set of a motion picture in Africa. They shared childhood tales, toasted the future, and declared their love in a fairy-tale wedding. But when they return to California, something alters the picture of their perfect marriage. A frightening pattern is taking shape-a cycle of hurt, denial, and promises, thinly veiled by glamour. Torn between fear and something that resembles love, Cassie wrestles with questions she never dreamed she would face: How can she leave? Then again, how can she stay?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13991 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-02
• Released on: 2002-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425185506
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
This politically correct Hollywood romance leaves no plotting stone unturned. For her discovery of an ancient human relic, glamorous UCLA anthropologist Cassie Barrett is rocketed to the prominence of a '90s-style Margaret Mead. As if that's not enough, she goes to Kenya as technical consultant on a movie starring hunk-of-the-month Alex Rivers. After a whirlwind romance, Cassie becomes the new Mrs. Rivers, toast of filmdom's beautiful people. But all is not bliss for the newlyweds: Alex's tortured past just won't let go, and Cassie must bear the brunt of his emotional scars. Perhaps attempting to salvage the predictable plot, Picoult administers to Cassie's bland character a dose of adrenalin-pumping amnesia. She also throws in a dollop of Native American culture and a noble savage who skirts the periphery of Cassie's tumultuous existence, always ready with sage advice, spiritual healing techniques and warm embraces. Some rather prettily told Indian legends are added to the mix, but the total effect is wide of the mark. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; film rights to Dove Audio; audio rights to Brilliance.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Cassie Barrett, an anthropologist, marries handsome, talented, and rich movie star Alex Rivers. They enter upon a picture-perfect life until Alex get a bit reckless. He becomes a Mr. Hyde in all his ugliness and directs his rage toward Cassie with fist and foot. Typical of abusive husbands, he apologizes profusely afterward. Cassie soon finds that she is pregnant-against her husband's wishes-and realizes that she must find a way to protect the unborn child. One of her rescuers is William Flying Horse, a policeman from South Dakota with demons of his own. Picoult (Harvesting the Heart, LJ 10/15/93) writes with an all-knowing and piercing eye. Hers is an important book from a talented writer we hope to hear from again and again. For most popular collections. [Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.]-Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.
--Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As in her last novel, Harvesting the Heart (1993), Picoult explores the dynamics and repercussions of intimate relationships, but she has made a bid for a wider audience with glamorous characters and a plot that, in less capable hands, would yield nothing more than a commercial romance. Alex Rivers is a handsome, sexy, and tormented movie star still fighting the fights of his miserable bayou childhood. He falls in love with a most unlikely mate, an anthropologist named Cassie Barrett, while on location in Tanzania. Alex sweeps modest Cassie off her sneaker-clad feet and they marry, but Mr. Sex Symbol turns out to be a wife beater. Cassie endures his rage and violence even after one particularly brutal beating causes her to miscarry, but when Alex goes after her during her second pregnancy, she runs away. There is, however, one complication--a blow to the head has brought on amnesia, and Cassie doesn't know who she is. Picoult manages to use this melodramatic flourish to fine effect as she ushers in the novel's hero, Will Flying Horse, a Sioux who rescues Cassie by bringing her to the South Dakota reservation he so eagerly escaped. Beneath the glitzy trappings, this is a riveting, unfailingly intelligent, and undeniably literary psychological drama. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

What Goes on Behind Closed Doors...
Jodi Picoult has given me even more cause to pass the word about her writing talent. Picture Perfect is yet another pageturner complete with emotional roller coaster. She has absolute power over me with her sympathetic, realistic, and sometimes enraging characters.

In Picture Perfect, anthropologist Cassie Barnett falls in love with princely movie star, Alex Rivers. They quickly marry, and Cassies believes she has found eternal happiness. Until the first time he lays his hands on her in anger. And then the second time and the third time....

And yet she stays!! I was half wanting to throttle Cassie myself! But don't worry. Jodi delivers a shocking ending that left me smiling for days.

Also recommended are Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen and The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner.

Very disappointing
This is the story of Cassie, who is found wandering helplessly in a cemetery by a young Indian policeman who just arrived in LA. Cassie suffers from amnesia and we don't know what brought her there, until a hollywood megastar recognizes her as his wife.

This is by far the most disappointing of Picoult's books, and I've read almost all of them and am a big fan of hers. Cassie is amnesic, yet she does remember stuff and it is not clear at all in the book how comes she recovers from her amnesia or actually how it happened. The story goes back and forth between the present, the past, the memories, and leaves readers lost in the middle.

I was surprised by other reviewers who were surprised by the ending. Chapter one gives the ending away in my opinion. What is frustrating is that it takes Picoult 350 pages to make her character realise the obvious.

I also found Cassie to be unreliable and unappealing, let alone her husband Alex, a massive egocentric. The story was very confused, mixing hollywood lifestyle with movie sets in Africa, with anthropology, Indian legends, domestic violence, alcoholism, amnesia - it was just too much for one book and the message was confused.

If you want a superb story of domestic violence, read Black & Blue by Anna Quindlen. If you want a good Picoult book, read The Pact or My Sister's Keeper, but definitely not Picture Perfect.

Good, but not as good as Picoult's others...
Keeping Faith, The Pact, and Harvesting the Heart are prime examples of Picoult's remarkable talent. I was enthralled by all three of those books. While Picture Perfect was a good read, it lacked the depth and beauty of the others. Still, it was enjoyable.