Strange "Choices"

Published Sep 25 2007, 03:41 PM by Adam Reilly

I've just finished the final installment of the Globe's "Choices of the Heart" series, and I'm left with a feeling of...befuddlement.

Yes, the three front-page stories--all by reporter Patricia Wen--were engaging reads. But compared to Barbara's Story, which won Wen a Casey Award and made her a Pulitzer Finalist back in 2004*, they lacked depth and thematic coherence.

The common thread, such as it is, seems to be that parents sometime have to make really tough decisions involving their kids. But it's not clear why "Choices" chose** to highlight the three personal stories it did, or whether there's any deeper lesson we're supposed to to take away from Wen's reporting.

All the reader reactions posted online seem to be positive, so maybe I'm being overly critical here. Then again, those comments were screened prior to posting. So I'm curious: does anyone out there have anything to say--good or bad--about the Globe's decision to devote so much space to these three stories?

*Oddly, the Pulitzer jury didn't pick a winner in the feature-writing category (where Wen was a finalist) that year.

**Indicates grammatical fix (see comments).