Leaving Time question

That's an interesting question and I don't know for sure. It could really go either way, couldn't it?

If he knows she's dead and he sees her, he's crazy. But if he doesn't know, and he sees her, that's crazy too. And there's also the fact that he started viewing her as Alice later.

So I guess it comes down to the logistics of whether he found out or not. I honestly don't remember, though; sorry.

UPDATE: I just remembered, Picoult replies to reader emails. You can ask the author herself, Cyvian!

Yes. I've just read this book and not normally a JP fan was a tad irritated with the character of Jenna to start with as I felt she was too cynical for a child who had been so "traumatized". However I loved the twist at the end and was completely blind-sided and then just loved the fact that I could start going over the story again to see how all the pieces fitted together. At first I had a question about Gideon and somehow I must have missed the comment about him being killed in Iraq. But then after reading all these comments I realized I had the same question about Thomas. He had such a huge reaction to Jenna wearing the necklace so was he dead or alive? Interesting....... He didn't seem to have any other family in the story so there was no one around who would miss or mourn or explain for him. I loved the elephant bits but perhaps that's because I'm living in Africa so they mean lots to us. Am totally fascinated by the thought of an elephant sanctuary in the heart of America, well done!

yeh come to think of it I was confused by that too, but alice visits him so he must be alive. i found the whole thing with his mental illness confusing. i think he probably had schizophrenia, but how come he's stuck in a mental hospital for ten years? dont people usually get better with medication and go on to lead normal lives eventually?

I was disappointed that Thomas didn't reveal to Alice (when Alice visited him in the hospital at the end) that the 13 year old Jenna had been visiting him. Instead, he talked about the 3 year old Jenna as if she were alive. Don't you think it would have added an interesting twist to Alice if she knew that Thomas was also being visited by Jenna's spirit?

This might be an interesting discussion if the OP had not chosen the "question" format. For those who don't know--just because you are posing a question to be discussed does NOT mean you need to check that "this is a discussion question" box just above the text area. If you do check that, the result is this cruddy mess of replies that are not sequential because they can be voted up or down. OP, I think you can actually fix this by going back to your first post, editing it, and deselecting the box.

Others: for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE stop checking off that box. GR has ignored feedback asking that the "question" format be eliminated--but we users can basically eliminate it by refusing to check that dreaded box!

As for the actual question--Thomas appears to be stuck in the past. He thinks Jenna is alive, well, and three years old.