Ever since I was a kid, I have been a reader. I love it! On vacation, half the fun for me would be the drive to the destination. (We always drove… never flew) I would bring a back pack full of books and be set.
The older I get the less time I have (or maybe make) to read. And when I do, I want it to be good. So for the most part I have been sticking to books that are suggested to me.
When “Small Great Things” by Jodi Piccoult kept coming up from random sources, I decided to give it a try. I had only read one of her books through in its entirety. and the others just never had content that really resonated with me. But I decided to give it a shot.
“Small Great Things” was a refreshingly impactful book. I feel like I have mentioned it to almost everyone that I have come across lately. It is a fiction story based loosely on real events.
At first I felt hesitant to recommend it because it does bridge some not so comfortable topics, even explaining the story line to others had me a little sheepish.
The main character is an experienced in a delivery room at a local hospital. She is asked to discontinue care on a particular infant, and faces difficult decisions when the infant faces physical distress. Plot twist… the parents who asked for the nurse to be removed from care were white supremacists and the nurse was black.
There is some very uncomfortable content, such as violence and offensive language. But I feel the author was as tasteful as could be while still maintaining the integrity of the story.
Honestly, sometimes we need to be uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to see the whole picture without all the filters. We need to see the world as it is. Because without the honest truth, we can trick ourselves into living a lie.
One of the most relatable characters in the story is the public defender who takes the nurses case. She is written to be a representative of the majority culture. Those who don’t agree with the extreme hate portrayed by others. But also those who cannot fully relate to the minority, and may never be aware of their own biases.
I encourage people to give it a try. It is a powerful theme. One that brings those subjects that we do not know how to breach, and sets them in our laps. It gives us truth to chew on.
The honesty and sincerity in the characters is something we can all connect with on some level.
I hope that we can all walk away with our toes gently stepped on. Because if we are never willing to be challenged, to step into someone else’s shoes, we will never experience the depth that life can bring.