| Small Great Things | |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Ballantine Books (US) Hodder & Stoughton (UK) |
| Published: | October 11, 2016 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Isbn: | 9780345544971 |
| Followed By: | A Spark of Light |
Small Great Things (2016) is the twenty-fifth novel by American author Jodi Picoult. The book focuses on race in America and revolves around the protagonist, a delivery nurse, named Ruth Jefferson.[1] Small Great Things is being adapted into a film starring Viola Davis and Julia Roberts.[2] This is Picoult's first novel with an African American protagonist.[3]
The story concentrates on an African-American labor/delivery (L&D) nurse, Ruth Jefferson, in charge of newborns at a fictional Connecticut hospital. Ruth is ordered not to touch or go near the baby of a white supremacist couple. After the baby dies in her care, Ruth is charged with murder, and taken to court.[4]
The story is told from the complex multiple racial perspectives of the principal characters, including the nurse, Ruth, Turk Bauer, the white supremacist father of the baby, and Kennedy McQuarrie, Ruth's attorney.[5] Picoult frequently employs an alternating multi-perspective narrative style in her novels, including My Sister's Keeper, Songs of the Humpback Whale, Sing You Home, Handle With Care, Change of Heart, House Rules, Lone Wolf, and The Storyteller.
The novel received positive and mixed reviews.[6] [7] [8] [9] Eleanor Brown of The Washington Post wrote that, "'Small Great Things' is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written. Frank, uncomfortably introspective and right on the day’s headlines, it will challenge her readers", although she felt that the book is "overly long, with a meandering middle, a tendency toward melodrama and a rushed ending that feels glib."[10] Whereas, Roxane Gay, writing for the New York Times thought Turk, the white supremacist character, was well-written; though also found that the protagonist and African American character, Ruth, to be the least believable: "The more we see of Ruth and her family, the more their characterization feels like black-people bingo — as if Picoult is working through a checklist of issues in an attempt to say everything about race in one book." Gay found it a "flawed novel" but felt "generous" toward the book and gave her "a lot of credit for trying, and for supporting her attempt with rigorous research, good intentions and an awareness of her fallibility". Gay further wrote: "The novel is messy, but so is our racial climate."[11]