Second Nature by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Random House, Sept. 2011
Cicely Coyne has done well by all standards in dealing with the fire that not only horribly disfigured her face, but killed her firefighter father. When the book opens, she has a succesful career and is about to get married. In to her life enters Eliza Cappadora; yes, as in The Deep End of the Ocean Cappadoras. Eliza is now married to Ben, the younger Cappadora who was kidnapped, but more importantly is a resident at a university hospital that performs reconstructive surgery on the face. Eliza thinks Cicely may be a good candidate for a face transplant. Cicely is not interested. After all, she has a great life. But learning that her fiance was involved in starting the fire and so, is marrying her out of guilt, changes everything.
With skill few fiction writers posses, once again, Mitchard takes us into an unimaginable life and makes it real with alarming expedition. As the story advances from one thing to another that would knock any normal person down for the count, Cicely gets up and gets up and gets up. All the while, her typical human frailties and faults serve to make Cicely more believable and not someone to pity. Her insight is an education for readers on how even the most well-intentioned can flinch at differences, not to mention the overtly biased:
The esteem that normal people get for nickels and dimes cost me thousands of dollars in sweat and effort, and even then sometimes it was denied me. People fled from me, psychically and in fact. Your face is your defining impression on the world. My job was to contradict that impression every day of my life.
The writing is awesome, literally, as in inspiring awe. The story never lets up, and keeps the reader intrigued even as Cicely seems to burn her candle at both ends. Deep End fans will enjoy getting to know a calm Beth Cappadora and Vincent, the older brother who was not kidnapped and suffers the guilt of it, even as an adult.
There are no easy answers in Second Nature, not for the characters and not for the readers. The stars are something you can have if you don’t expect the moon along with them; joy is what you seek, not what comes riding in on a white horse. Mitchard resists wrapping it all up neatly with a pat ending, which is only one of the many things I admire about her most. And yet, the end is real and so perfect.
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