Small Great Things - Review

Small Great Things     🌟🌟🌟🌟

By Jodi Picoult

Expected Publish Date 10/11/16 by Ballantine/Penguin Random  House  

Finished 9/24/16

I used to read everything Jodi Picoult offered up, and she was one of my favorite fiction writers.  I have other favorites now, but she can still get under my skin and into my head like the best of them.  Always timely, always controversial, her subjects are tackled with aplomb and proficiency.  

Now she's spun a tale of racial prejudice.  She knew how difficult this would be for a white privileged woman such as herself, and she was aware that she wous be setting many tongues a-wagging, from all peespectives.  She has woven a very complex story from three sides: 

• Turk, a white supremicist.  Oh, he doesn't hate black people, he just thinks whites are so much better, so he says.  His newborn son dies shortly after a routine procedure, and he manages to bring a suit against the only black nurse in the hospital.
• Ruth, the nurse, a widowed mother who must seek defense for her actions.
• Kennedy, the public defender who takes on the case, who thought she knew herself and what's  what in the world, but learns so much more from Ruth.  Her feelings about racism I'm sure mimicked the author's and were quite evocative.  

At first, the Turk chapters made me so angry, I couldn't even read them.  I thought the descriptions of his hate-filled world  so appalling, I didn't want to think about it.  So I skimmed.  (Hiding head in sand.)  The later chapters, though, managed to hold my attention MUCH better.  Not that I liked him or his life or his story more than Ruth's or Kennedy's, but the resolution of his story was sort of genius.  Like Ms. Picoult.  Hell, like this book!

I strongly recommend.  Could make for quite a highly-charged book club discussion. A big thanks to NetGalley and to Ballantine/Penguin Random House for an Advanced Readers Copy.