Small Great Things

By Jodi Picoult

Ballentine     2016

470 pages     Fiction

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am embarrassed to say that I hated this important book and almost didn’t finish it. Am I a bad person?

Jodi Picoult is no stranger to topical novels ripped from the headlines. In Small Great Things,  Jodi Picoult tackles race and racism, white privilege, and white supremacy all in one ugly and divisive story line that almost defies description.    

           

Here in a nutshell is a summary of the book. Ruth, a Black nurse, is forbidden from treating the baby of white supremacists. When the baby goes into cardiac arrest, Ruth hesitates before giving the baby CPR, leading to a devastating outcome, and a legal battle against the baby's parents. The novel explores not only overt racism, but the more subtle ways prejudice shapes relationships and our worldview.

I was angry all the way through the book. I thought, Why is Picoult trying to speak in the voice of a black woman and a young white supremacist? Why so many stereotypes? Why is she tackling so many topics, leaving me to be agitated and uncomfortable the whole 470 pages! Why did she write such a long book? Why couldn’t she just use the voice of Kennedy the white woman public defender?

I almost stopped reading several times, bolstered by a friend telling me that she got so angry she quit the book. I finished because my sister, who was as uncomfortable as I was, finished reading it—and she didn’t even get to book club on Thursday night. My copy of the book is riddled with handwritten questions, exclamation points, question marks, and other signs of exasperation.

I finished it because of book club and because the wise women who are in my club were going to  have a lot to say. And did they ever! First, we all acknowledged that the plot was a bit contrived and conveniently ended. We all wondered why she chose to add so many plot devices. We all acknowledged that we are so filled with our white privilege and our liberal white bias that we think that we are doing all we can to help race relations in our country, when in effect we are actually less liberal than we think we are. In the end, we decided that having this discussion was the ultimate value

of the book and that despite its many flaws, Small Great Things delivered exactly what Picoult wanted the book to deliver. One reviewer said, “But it’s also exciting to have a high-profile writer like Picoult take an earnest risk to expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice.” Another reviewer called it a courageous and important work.

Well, if you read it, you will have to decide for yourself what you think about it.  Me—I’m moving on to a cozy mystery. Whew! Thank God this is over.

Here is an interview with Jodi Picoult at Book Expo 2016.