Genre: Fiction
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Jodi Picoult has done it again with Small Great Things. She has touched the rawest of emotions in her readers in a time when emotions seem to be ruling the day. She has taken us into the hearts and the minds of the bigot and the victim, and she has shown us humanity at its best and worst. I, for one, found it as uncomfortable as it was amazing, and I have always admired author Picoult's ability to tap into society's weaknesses and bring us along for the ride.
Ruth is an African-American nurse with over twenty years of experience in the maternity ward. Her sweet nature shines out in her care of her patients. Turk Bauer is a white supremacist who is clear in his insistence that Ruth will never touch his child. The conflict arises when the baby goes into cardiac arrest and Ruth hesitates before reacting. The child dies, and Ruth is ultimately charged with a serous crime.
The novel is told through the eyes of Ruth, Turk and Public Defender Kennedy McQuarrie. Picoult moves us seamlessly from worlds of prejudice to worlds of privilege. She humanizes the inhuman, when she shows us what made, and continues to make, Turk so hateful. One of the early scenes, with Turk making his "bones" in becoming part of his White Supremacist gang shows him in front of a gay bar. His emotions with whom he encounters there are so raw that the scene was difficult to read.
Jodi Picoult's characterizations are always so thorough and her descriptions so vivid, that reading her books becomes cathartic to those who read them. Her followers anxiously await her latest novels, and rarely does she disappoint. Small Great Things is no exception. Find some time, grab a box of tissue, and jump onto the emotional roller coaster that only Jodi Picoult can take you on.
- Beverly
Publisher - Ballantine Books
Date of Publication - October 11, 2016
Ruth is an African-American nurse with over twenty years of experience in the maternity ward. Her sweet nature shines out in her care of her patients. Turk Bauer is a white supremacist who is clear in his insistence that Ruth will never touch his child. The conflict arises when the baby goes into cardiac arrest and Ruth hesitates before reacting. The child dies, and Ruth is ultimately charged with a serous crime.
The novel is told through the eyes of Ruth, Turk and Public Defender Kennedy McQuarrie. Picoult moves us seamlessly from worlds of prejudice to worlds of privilege. She humanizes the inhuman, when she shows us what made, and continues to make, Turk so hateful. One of the early scenes, with Turk making his "bones" in becoming part of his White Supremacist gang shows him in front of a gay bar. His emotions with whom he encounters there are so raw that the scene was difficult to read.
Jodi Picoult's characterizations are always so thorough and her descriptions so vivid, that reading her books becomes cathartic to those who read them. Her followers anxiously await her latest novels, and rarely does she disappoint. Small Great Things is no exception. Find some time, grab a box of tissue, and jump onto the emotional roller coaster that only Jodi Picoult can take you on.
- Beverly
Publisher - Ballantine Books
Date of Publication - October 11, 2016
