Author | Jodi Picoult |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Published | October 11, 2016 |
Publisher | Ballantine Books (US) Hodder & Stoughton (UK) |
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]
Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to:
Sarah Dessen is an American novelist who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Born in Illinois, Dessen graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. She has since published more than a dozen other novels and novellas. In 2017, Dessen won the Margaret Edwards Award for some of her work. Two of her books were adapted into the 2003 film How to Deal.
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American writer. Picoult has published 27 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 languages. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003.
My Sister's Keeper (2004) is the eleventh novel by the American author Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, who sues her parents for medical emancipation when she is told to donate a kidney to her elder sister Kate, who is gradually dying from acute leukemia.
Jennifer Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was Good in Bed. Her novel In Her Shoes (2002) was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine.
Keeping Faith (1999) is the sixth novel by the bestselling American author Jodi Picoult. The book is about a custody battle involving a seven-year-old girl, Faith White, who may be seeing God.
Nineteen Minutes (2007) is the fourteenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult. It was Picoult's first book to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. This novel follows the unfolding of a school shooting, including the events leading up to the incident and the aftermath of the incident.
Second Glance (2003) is the tenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult.
Change of Heart is the sixteenth novel by American author Jodi Picoult, published in 2008. The novel explores themes of loss, redemption, religion and spirituality, and punishment.
Handle with Care (2009) is the seventeenth novel by American author Jodi Picoult. Handle with Care debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
House Rules (2010) is the eighteenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult. The novel focuses on a young adult male, Jacob Hunt, with Asperger's syndrome living in Townsend, Vermont, who is accused of murder. The novel follows the struggle between Jacob and his family, the law, and his disability.
Lone Wolf (2012) is the twentieth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult and it is a New York Times bestselling book. The novel was released on February 28, 2012 through Atria Books and focuses on a man returning to his childhood home after a terrible accident.
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), as well as the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).
The Storyteller is the twenty-second novel written by the American author, Jodi Picoult.
An Untamed State is the debut novel of writer Roxane Gay, first published in 2014 by Grove Atlantic.
Bad Feminist: Essays is a 2014 collection of essays by cultural critic, novelist and professor Roxane Gay. Bad Feminist explores being a feminist while loving things that could seem at odds with feminist ideology. Gay's essays engage pop culture and her personal experiences, covering topics such as the Sweet Valley High series, Django Unchained, and Gay's own upbringing as a Haitian-American.
Between the Lines is a young adult (YA) fiction novel co-written by the American author, Jodi Picoult, and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Between the Lines is Picoult's first YA novel, and Van Leer's first published work. The novel was published on June 26, 2012 by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Picoult and Van Leer authored a sequel called Off the Page, which was released in 2015 by Delacorte Press. Off the Page continues the story of Delilah and Oliver.
A Spark of Light is a 2018 contemporary novel by American writer Jodi Picoult. The plot of the book surrounds a shooting in a women's health clinic in Mississippi. A police negotiator bargains for the release of hostages including his teenage daughter. The book focuses on the father-daughter dynamic and the issue of abortion.
Off the Page is a young adult fiction novel co-written by American author Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Off the Page is Picoult's second YA novel, and also Van Leer's second published work. The novel was published on May 19, 2015 by Ember Publishing, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group and Delacorte Press. It is the second novel in the Between The Lines trilogy, following Between the Lines.
Leaving Time is a 2014 novel by American writer Jodi Picoult. It is the twenty-third novel written by the author. The first edition was published on October 14, 2014 by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House.