Review of "The Book of Two Ways: A Novel" by Jodi Picoult

When she was in her mid-twenties, Dawn McDowell was a Ph.D. candidate in the Yale Egyptology program....

.....headed by Professor Dumphries, who led the department's dig at Deir el-Bersha.



Dawn and fellow graduate student, Wyatt Armstrong - a handsome, golden-haired Brit....



.....rubbed each other the wrong way from day one, each vying to be the best and the brightest, and competing to be Dumphries' favorite.

Dawn and Wyatt sniped at each other constantly until the day they discovered a depinto - an inscription in hieroglyphics - beneath a rock ledge.



The depinto revealed the existence of a previously unknown tomb, and in their excitement - when Wyatt wrapped his arms around Dawn and spun her around - the two became friends....and then fell madly in love.



Dawn and Wyatt's area of study was 'The Book of Two Ways', an inscription in Egyptian tombs that depicts two paths to the afterlife, an upper water path and a lower land path. The deceased travels down one of the pathways, meeting guardians and watchers who prevent unworthy sinners from passing.


Illustration of The Book of Two Ways


The Book of Two Ways inscribed on the bottom of a coffin

Dawn and Wyatt, who seemed to be made for each other, made an excellent romantic AND research team. They pictured themselves together, leading digs; unearthing tombs; interpreting hieroglyphics; publishing articles; etc.



Then the unthinkable happened. Dawn learned her mother was in a hospice, dying of ovarian cancer. Dawn rushed home to Boston to care for her mother, who died a few weeks later. This made Dawn guardian of her 13-year-old brother Kieran, a responsibility Dawn took very seriously.



Thus, Dawn withdrew from the Egyptology program; met physicist Brian Edelstein; got pregnant; got married; became a death doula (a person who helps the dying at the end of their lives); and didn't say a word about any of it to Wyatt.

*****

We first meet Dawn fifteen years later, when her life is much different than what she pictured in Egypt. Dawn is married to physicist Brian Edelstein, a caring solicitous spouse who teaches at Harvard;



Dawn and Brian are raising their 14-year-old daughter Meret, a science whiz who attends summer STEM camp;



and Dawn is helping her client Win, a dying artist, peacefully approach her last moments.



Dawn's life takes a dramatic turn when Brian gets too cozy with an attractive graduate student and Win tells Dawn about her lost first love, whom she never forgot. Dawn feels compelled to go back to Egypt, find Wyatt, and continue studying the Book of Two Ways.



As Dawn navigates her life she's torn between Wyatt and her Egyptology studies on the one hand (the land path), and Brian and Meret on the other hand (the water path). That's the basic theme of the book.

The story moves back and forth in time, alternating between events fifteen years ago and events in the present. Some of the time jumps are purposely tricky. leading to twists I didn't see coming.

A Jodi Picoult novel is never simple, and the book includes a good bit of chitchat about ancient Egypt, physics, the responsibilities of a death doula, and Irish superstitions.

The ancient Egypt sections include discussions of Egyptian gods; beliefs; tombs; inscriptions; hieroglyphics; pharaohs; kings; queens; brothers; sisters; incest (which was common); marriages; burial rites; the afterlife; etc. It's like a mini-textbook about ancient Egypt.


Display of an ancient Egyptian tomb

The physics sections are about quantum mechanics and multiverses - the idea that there are infinite universes with parallel timelines. Thus I might be a physics professor giving a lecture in one timeline; a cab driver in a car crash in a second timeline; a ballerina rehearsing with the Bolshoi in a third timeline, married to my first boyfriend in a fourth timeline....you get the idea.



The duties of a death doula are exemplified by Dawn's recollections of former clients and her day-to-day care of Win. Death doula responsibilities can include helping the client declutter the house; make a will; plan a funeral; visit favorite places; write letters; comfort relatives; and so on. Whatever the client wants that's not medical-related.



The Irish superstitions are among the more light-hearted parts of the book. Dawn's mother was a VERY superstitious Irishwoman with a strong belief in the supernatural. She put safety pins in Dawn's clothing to ward off the evil eye; taught Dawn never to whistle indoors; instructed Dawn to look in a mirror if she left the house and had to come back in; made Dawn pay a penny after she gave her a Swiss Army Knife for Christmas; told Dawn she'd never get married if she sat in the corner at the table; and so on. These rituals are meant to insure good luck and prevent harm, and Dawn brings them up - usually in fun - as the occasion arises.



I found the 'extra bits' of the novel interesting, but some reviewers think the Egyptology and physics chatter is excessive and boring.

I enjoyed the book and was engrossed in Dawn's dilemma.....whether to choose Wyatt or Brian. You might be tempted to get judgy, but read the book first. 😊

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Jodi Picoult), and the publisher (Ballantine Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars