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Because of the urgency, the frenzy, the sheer joy of new
life in the Labor & Delivery department at Mercy-West Haven
hospital, not many people noticed that Ruth was the only
African-American nurse on-staff. She was a good nurse, a
mentor and there was really no reason for anybody to see
her skin.
But Ruth felt that singleness keenly in the comments made,
the small slights, and the assumptions she was sure her
colleagues made. Still, she loved her job and was too good
at it to make too many waves – until shortly after Davis
Bauer was born.
In many ways, Turk Bauer knew he was lucky.
He was married to Brittany, the most beautiful woman he’d
ever known, and they were about to be parents. Turk: white
supremacist, co-creator of LONEWOLF, skinhead, former leader
of his own White Power organization was going to have a
child to bring up as a good Aryan warrior. He would raise
his child right.
And it started by telling the nursing supervisor that Ruth
Jefferson was not allowed to touch his son. No black skin
ever would, if Turk had anything to say about it, and a note
to that effect went on the baby’s medical records.
And that might’ve been the end of the issue, had Turk’s son
not gone into cardiac arrest. There might have been no
discussion, had Ruth not been momentarily tasked with
keeping an eye on the baby.
It might’ve been largely forgotten, if the child hadn’t
died….
Are we all just a little bit racist? That’s the
uncomfortable, but necessary, question at the root of
Small Great Things.
Author Jodi Picoult wrapped a story around a nugget of news,
and it’s not a particularly relaxing thing: her stellar
characterization – for Turk, especially – will make you
squirm. He and his cohorts are given dialogue (beware!)
that’s laced with hateful words, and we’re meant to dislike
him intensely, in the courtroom and out.
Readers may also raise eyebrows at the friendship between
Ruth and her lawyer; there were times when it and some of
the more minor plotlines seemed contrived (and not
purposefully so). You’ll be excused for overlooking that,
however, because you’ll be too busy enjoying the way Picoult
peppers her story with precisely-right extras, a
properly-unwound trial, and a perfect ending to this
glued-to-your-hands novel.
Fans of Picoult, get ready, set, go. You know you want this
book – just as you will if you’re a lover of make-you-think
novels. Start Small Great Things and you can’t put it
down. |
