Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult

“Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?”


What follows is a complicated legal and personal tale. Picoult wrote the book to try to encourage fellow white people to see how racism manifests in myriad ways. This is particularly intended for people who might never see themselves as racist. We trail Ruth as she is victimized by a cruel system. Kennedy is her white lawyer, a liberal with no notion of her own personal biases. Picoult also shows us Turk and Brit, the skinhead couple who spark the conflict.

We see some of how Turk and Brit became the way they are, and get an image of what the lives, worldviews, and tactical considerations are of people in this extreme end of society. Kennedy struggles with her own actions and perceptions. She is our avatar here, feeling righteous, but learning how racism pervades in unsuspected ways, getting educated by Ruth to the reality of pervasive discrimination.

All of these POV’s are handled masterly. With none of the characters coming away as paragons or utter villains. Of course Turk is the worst character but he is written with such realism and humanity, I kind of understood how an angry unloved youth might fall into the White Supremacist trap. 

There is a steady drip, drip, drip of small racial insults that Ruth endures and recalls. Her son gets a taste as well. If you can think of a racial slight, Picoult has incorporated it here. She uses not so much a broad brush as a steamroller to make sure we get the embedded significance. This is not a subtle book. But while it may use a very direct method, there is much here that shows the author’s skill. She does not, for example, settle solely on white on black bias. She also touches on the bias in the black community toward each other. 

A truly heart breaking book in its believability and frustration so expertly portrayed. An all round brilliant book to read if you want an introduction into the concepts of race. 

The only thing I had a little problem was the happy happy ending however there are many skinhead that have left the movement and I can grant Picoult some artistic license. 

Age Rating 13+.Complicated issues are discussed but in a simple way that any smart person should be able to grasp and would be a good conversation starter.