Well Read: Small Great Things

WELL READ By: Cheryl G. Rice

Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C.

SMALL GREAT THINGS: JODI PICOULT

Honestly, I was less than excited when my book club recently selected small great things, by Jodi Picoult, as the next group read. I’ve read a few of Jodi Picoult’s works and wasn’t really up for another one at the moment. But being the faithful book club member that I am, and having some extra time on my hands at the right time, I decided to dive in. And I’m glad I did–I found it to be an entertaining page-turner that also made me think. I encourage you to check it out.

small great things is a story of race and racism in America told around the central figure of Ruth Jefferson, a Yale-educated Black woman, wife of a fallen soldier, and mother to a teenaged honors student. Ruth is an experienced and skillful labor and delivery nurse raised in Harlem by her mother, a domestic for a well-to-do Manhattan family. Ruth’s mother sent her to the best school she could, where Ruth worked hard, achieved, and ended up living what she believes is a version of the American Dream.

One day, as Ruth begins her shift at the suburban Connecticut hospital where she works, she enters the room of a couple and their newborn son. Ruth immediately senses an uncomfortable tension but cannot discern its root. Shortly after she leaves the room, Ruth’s supervisor tells her the couple has declared that they do not want Ruth or anyone who “looks like her” having any further contact with them or their child. The hospital goes along with the family’s request, but later, due to short staffing, Ruth is left alone with the newborn when he goes into cardiac distress. Ruth is torn between honoring her ethical duty to help the child and her employer’s directive that she not touch the infant. Ruth ultimately follows her instincts to help the child, who dies. The couple, white supremacists, allege that Ruth intentionally harmed their baby, and soon Ruth is charged with racially motivated murder and loses her job. Ruth receives appointed counsel, and we meet Kennedy, the white, upper-middle-class, female public defender whose job it is to clear Ruth’s name.

The novel moves between the perspectives of Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk, the father of the deceased infant, providing readers a back story for each character that humanizes them and provides insights into their individual viewpoints. Ruth is forced to confront not only the realities of racism in the mainly white community where she lives and works that she has tried to overlook for years, but also prejudice within the Black community. Kennedy, who lives in an upscale neighborhood with her daughter and her physician husband, thinks she “doesn’t see color.” But, as she joins Ruth’s journey from arraignment to trial, Kennedy’s eyes are opened to her own biases and privilege, and the insights she gains aid her zealous representation of Ruth. Through Turk, we follow the path of a disturbing childhood to his indoctrination as a neo-Nazi and gain a frightening glimpse of the modern-day Ku Klux Klan in America.

In the story of Ruth, her attorney, and her accusers, Picoult explores race, racism, prejudice, privilege, justice, and more. As the story unfolds, we see our society and the justice system through the eyes of Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk, their family members, co-workers, police, and court personnel, among others. Picoult often explores current social issues in her novels, and small great things is another such endeavor by this author. While some may critique aspects of this novel as contrived or unrealistic, Picoult does a credible job presenting the social issues through her work. Although purely fiction, the main premise for the story–Ruth’s initial dilemma–is drawn from a real-life incident involving a Black nurse in Flint, Michigan. Picoult’s efforts to research the topics she attempts to address through this tale included reading works on race and privilege, conducting in-depth interviews with actual skinheads and African American women, and doing detailed research into the criminal justice system, and all lend credibility to her work. Drawing her title from the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Picoult uses the small act of penning this novel to contribute to the greater goal of dismantling racism in America. Though at times dark and disturbing, Picoult’s small great things is a book many will enjoy, and feel has enhanced their own perspective on this complex issue.