Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Body in Question
Jill Ciment
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Body in Question
Jill Ciment
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Body in Question, by Jill Ciment, is the story of juror C2, a professional photographer, who meets fellow juror F17, an anatomy professor, at the trial opening. C2 wants to photograph body parts on cadavers. Her husband is an 86 year old retired professor who loves her very much. She worries she will be sequestered and have to leave him alone for three weeks. Alone at 86 is worrisome, as he loses things, forgets to turn off lights, and to lock doors.
The trial is of a young girl accused of killing her 18-month-old brother by setting fire on him. A photo is passed to all the jurors showing the melted crib. The defendant, Anca, and her twin sister, Stephana, had been adopted from a Romanian orphanage twelve years before. The prosecuting attorney tells about all the problems with their growing up. After the jurors dine at a restaurant, they are driven to a motel. They are ordered to remain separate, not lock their doors, and not watch TV. C2 sneaks into F17’s room to watch the movie Amadeus with him. She loves the music. They lie on the bed and kiss. Just once. She returns to her room. The next evening, after dinner, they distract the deputy, take a shower, then sleep together. This is not permissible behavior for jurors.
Next day, the defense talks about “dominance disorder” between twins where one convinces the other to do the deed she wants to control. Anca’s twin had ordered her twin to confess to the murder. C2 writes in her notebook. F17’s notebook is blank. C2 and F17 continue to make love. She writes in her journal, “I have a lover.” In court, the defense questions Tim, Stephana’s boyfriend. He says he ran into the house and put out the fire with the extinguisher from his truck. An arson expert testifies. All C2 can remember is the quiet sex in the motel room.
C2’s elderly husband comes for a “conjugal visit” to the motel. An alternate juror has seen C2 with her hand on F17’s door knob. Will he report them? C2 asks F17 how his students dissect a body. He tells her, outlining it on her naked body. C2 worries that everyone knows about her and F17. C2 and F17 swim in the motel pool the next day. They talk. A video is shown to the jury, taken by Stephana six days after the fire. They hear statistics showing false confessions. The alternate takes the place of a sleeping juror. In the final summation, C2 doesn’t believe the prosecuting attorney. He doesn’t show motive. The defense speaks about dominance.
The author, Ciment, takes us to C2’s home after the trial is over. The names of the jurors might be released as well as the fact that two jurors were having an affair. Will C2’s husband learn the truth about his wife? Will he be in a deadly rage about it? What will be the sentence for the guilty twin? Will the jurors get together again for closure? Will C2 and F17 see each other again? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
The trial is of a young girl accused of killing her 18-month-old brother by setting fire on him. A photo is passed to all the jurors showing the melted crib. The defendant, Anca, and her twin sister, Stephana, had been adopted from a Romanian orphanage twelve years before. The prosecuting attorney tells about all the problems with their growing up. After the jurors dine at a restaurant, they are driven to a motel. They are ordered to remain separate, not lock their doors, and not watch TV. C2 sneaks into F17’s room to watch the movie Amadeus with him. She loves the music. They lie on the bed and kiss. Just once. She returns to her room. The next evening, after dinner, they distract the deputy, take a shower, then sleep together. This is not permissible behavior for jurors.
Next day, the defense talks about “dominance disorder” between twins where one convinces the other to do the deed she wants to control. Anca’s twin had ordered her twin to confess to the murder. C2 writes in her notebook. F17’s notebook is blank. C2 and F17 continue to make love. She writes in her journal, “I have a lover.” In court, the defense questions Tim, Stephana’s boyfriend. He says he ran into the house and put out the fire with the extinguisher from his truck. An arson expert testifies. All C2 can remember is the quiet sex in the motel room.
C2’s elderly husband comes for a “conjugal visit” to the motel. An alternate juror has seen C2 with her hand on F17’s door knob. Will he report them? C2 asks F17 how his students dissect a body. He tells her, outlining it on her naked body. C2 worries that everyone knows about her and F17. C2 and F17 swim in the motel pool the next day. They talk. A video is shown to the jury, taken by Stephana six days after the fire. They hear statistics showing false confessions. The alternate takes the place of a sleeping juror. In the final summation, C2 doesn’t believe the prosecuting attorney. He doesn’t show motive. The defense speaks about dominance.
The author, Ciment, takes us to C2’s home after the trial is over. The names of the jurors might be released as well as the fact that two jurors were having an affair. Will C2’s husband learn the truth about his wife? Will he be in a deadly rage about it? What will be the sentence for the guilty twin? Will the jurors get together again for closure? Will C2 and F17 see each other again? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.