The Bookends discussion

This is a hard book for discussion "questions" as it isn't a classic book club choice, made even harder by the fact that I haven't read it yet... but I do have it in my possession and will be reading it within the week!
I knew a few of our members have read it, and the rating range from love, or hate, to middle of the fence. I would love to hear what everyone thought, and if anyone has a good question to prompt a discussion, feel free to throw it out there.

Sorry for the delay with getting things going. Hopefully late is better than never and someone will have something to say. :)

There were a couple of general questions that stood out to me in this book. I don't know if they're so much deep, meaning-of-life type things, but would be great to hear your opinions!

1.) One of the things that continually popped up in the first 2/3 or so was whether Gary Murphy/Soneji was truly an individual with multiple personality disorder. This is something that, to the best of my awareness, the psychology community still debates. If - hypothetically - Gary Soneji/Murphy DID have a multiple-personality disorder, how do you think this would have affected court proceedings? What type of sentence do you think would be just if an an individual were to simultaneously be a violent psychopath and an innocent bystander?

2.) Maybe this is me, but Jessie seemed to have feelings of shame and regret over what she had done to Maggie Rose, and she mentions that the reason they sent her away was because it was too late to turn back. Do you think she was truly remorseful? To what extent do you think her relationship with Alex was a ruse, especially towards the end of the book?

Good questions! I just finished the book myself, and although I wasn't a huge fan of the actual book, I think your questions are well chosen. :)

1) Maybe I'm just cynical, but even if someone had an actual split personality, there is still a part of me that would never trust that they weren't lying. I'm not overly keen on the death sentence for most criminals, so life in prison? Mental institution? What do you think?

2) I didn't really feel much shame or regret from Jezzie. She even said that if she could to do it over again, for $10 million, she would still abduct Maggie Rose. Cross refers to both Jezzie and Soneji as being sociopaths. But what makes a sociopath? They seemed like different monsters to me.
I don't think that her relationship to Cross was a ruse, but it certainly wasn't your standard loving relationship either. Poor Alex... since I don't intend on reading any more Patterson books, can someone tell me if he eventually meets a sane woman?

I started to read this once and got so mad at Patterson for the intro about the burying the baby (I thought how could he write such a thing) that I didn't read it! (probably over reacted a bit).

There were a few parts that were extremely hard to read. It only got more graphic. It's always especially difficult to read when there are kids involved. :(

Lindsay, your point about what Cross says regarding both Jezzie & Soneji as sociopaths really got me thinking - unfortunately, thinking about more questions than answers. I started wondering whether any serious crime, or perhaps even any crime involving children, would be enough to label someone a sociopath, or does it take a certain motive to provide this classification? Other than that both individuals committed at least one rather heinous act with no general concept that they would have done differently, the similarities do not seem strong. Their behaviors, intentions, and what gains they hoped to get out of their crimes were drastically different. I'm not excusing any person who does something so serious as murder or kidnapping (I tend to agree with your suggestions above regarding potential mental institutionalization or jail - or, more appropriate, a forensic psychological unit for life) but I have to wonder then what is the difference between a "normal" person who makes a bad mistake and a "sociopath".

So this is what the dictionary has to say about sociopath:
so·ci·o·path
   [soh-see-uh-path, soh-shee-]
noun Psychiatry .
a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

By that definition, Jezzie wouldn't necessarily be sociopathic. She certainly wasn't antisocial, although maybe Patterson was just basing it on the lack of morals and conscience.