Books Set in the United States: Connecticut

Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult (2016)

Like so many of Jodi Picoult’s novels, this book tackles social issues that have been in the news.  This time the theme is racism and white supremacy.

Ruth Jefferson is a nurse in the maternity ward in a Connecticut hospital.  She is the daughter of a woman who was a domestic and the first in her family to go to college.  She worked her way through college to earn her nursing degree.  She has worked at the hospital for 20 years and is only African-American nurse on staff in the maternity ward.

While working in the hospital, she is also a widowed mother, raising a studious teenage son.  She is saving her money to send her son to college.

Enter Brittany and Turk, a couple of white supremacists.  Brittany has just given birth to a baby boy.  They name their son Davis in honor of Jefferson Davis.  Ruth meets the couple and performs a routine checkup of the newborn.  The parents are taken aback that a Black nurse would touch their son, so insist that that a note be included in the baby’s file stating that no African-Americans are to treat the baby.  The hospital agrees to the parent’s request and Ruth is ordered not to touch the baby.

Nearing the end of a double shift, and when the ward is short-staffed, Ruth is called in to monitor the baby.  When the baby goes into cardiac distress, Ruth is faced with the dilemma of whether to let her nursing instinct to take over or obey orders not to touch the baby.  Soon other medical personnel are called in and a doctor orders Ruth to perform CPR.  When the baby dies, Ruth is charged with murder of the baby.

Ruth is assigned a public defender (I am not convinced that she would be considered indigent for purpose of being assigned a public defender, but …), a well-intentioned white woman with a young daughter, with no concept of racial prejudice.  The prosecutor, however, is a Black woman.  How will this play out before a jury?

As with many of Picoult’s books, there is a twist near the end.  Maybe I have read enough of her writings to look for clues throughout the book.  At any rate, I guessed the twist.  That didn’t take away from the important conversation of this novel.

Small Great Things was a page-turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt the characters really came alive.

Read:  July 4, 2017

4.5 Stars