Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Small Great Things: A Novel

Truly taken aback by underlying attitude

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2018

Picoult has a very intriguing story here. She proposes very real dilemmas, enough so to cause you to really examine previous notions. She produces a plot that maintains your interest to the very end. However, she makes a couple of misguided assumptions and ignorant statements that totally disrupted my thoughts and insulted the reader. Her comments that Tea Party members are just Klan members in disguise is ludicrous. What about Black members of the Tea Party? They do exist. What about all the other minorities who agree with the conservative views of the Tea Party? Are they racist bigots? Totally insulting!! The story could have done without these veiled insults entirely and been a good story. There are also the insults to those who watch Fox News, insinuating that there is trash news on that is unfit for children. Again, this is insulting to a great many Americans, a good majority of Americans, and it was totally unnecessary in the frame of the story. You disappoint me thoroughly, Ms. Picoult. This is the last of your books that I will read. I, by the way, am not a Tea Party member, but I know a good number of them, good people who love this country in all its diversity. Shame on you.

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Chemin

I saw myself in this story

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2016

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As a "successful middle-class" African-American woman I was truly stunned to recognize so many aspects of my own life in Ruth. I have read every Picoult book - some twice - but never have I had my own experiences articulated so effectively by someone who isn't a person of color. I finished it yesterday morning and was rattled all day by the insights and depth of honesty revealed here. I still am, but had to take a moment to post everywhere and say THANK YOU!! Jodi, I read your acknowledgments of how you created this book, and I wish I could meet you. I am awed and will recommend this book to anyone I know: starting with my husband. Blessings to you for your courage, research and determination to see beyond what you knew, what was comfortable - and take this risk.

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Hazel Sheldrake

Small great things has changed my outlook

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2017

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I am South African. I grew up in apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela was released from prison when I was 18 years of age.
It was a renewing of the mind for me. I had to learn to think differently. I had to see things differently. It sounds crazy, but it was as if I was brainwashed. Brainwashed by my country and by my upbringing.
But, South Africa legalized apartheid, named it, called it into existence. As wrong as that is, it was out there, known to all.
When I read small great things, I felt like America had this disease, this underlying disease that no one knew about. It rots from the inside. And the entire nation walks around pretending it's all ok.
In some ways, in South Africa, we are blessed, our disease was a big rotting sore, and we cut it open and it oozed puss and blood and it was not nice to look at, and it was shameful, but we knew it was there and that we had to do something about it. So we cut it open and exposed it to the world, but most importantly to ourselves, and that is where the healing began. We still have a lot to learn, we still have a long road ahead, but we are healing and learning to love again. I pray the same for America.

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Joyce Parker

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES!

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018

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Author Jodi Picoult had a sermon she wanted to preach. She explains in the Author’s Note at the end of the book how she wanted to write a book about racism for two decades. In Small Great Things, she indulged her wish.

Before she could preach her sermon though, she had to build a pulpit. Picoult spends the first half of her book building that pulpit from the frayed headlines of news stories over the past decade, many of which have been retracted or proved wrong. (Headlines can be unreliable.) But build it she does; laboriously, flawed, shaky and stretching the credulity of the reader. I could list the ridiculous events readers are expected to swallow, but there are too many. It would bore you, and me, to try. Read it and you can be entertained by highlighting the “ripped from the headlines” events.

It’s hard to care about a story if the characters aren’t believable or sympathetic. Picoult falls short in the character development also. To support her impending sermon, she had to create characters that would serve her message, 2 dimensional almost describes them, maybe 1.5-D would be more accurate. Ruth, the black nurse, is the pure snow-white angel, Turk, the white supremacist, is the black evil devil. And so they stay until the end when Ruth is saved by a now-enlightened social justice warrior public defender trust baby, and Turk is redeemed by his love for his wife who he finds out is half black. (Oh! The irony!) Don’t worry, Turk’s half black wife is conveniently disposed of to allow him an uncomplicated redemption.

The preaching really gets going in the trial, which starts after the pulpit is sufficiently built. We are expected to forget the shaky, inconsistent and defective foundation and now focus on the problem of racism, and white privilege. After all, Picoult tells us in the Author’s Note that her intended audience is the privileged white class that arrogantly claims not to see color.

I’m still left to wonder why people with a smidge more melanin in the top layer of their skin still need to be rescued, saved, explained and all the other patronizing remedies privileged whites foist on their behalf. How condescending. When will melanin-challenged people allow abundant-melanin people to be something other than victims? When will abundant-melanin people refuse to be classified as victims. I guess as long as there is money to be made and power to be had while pushing that meme, we will need a victim class.

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Jodi Picoult’s SMALL GREAT THINGS. This book is so riveting as it ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2016

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Gripping. Powerful. A story that needs to be told. From two different perspectives. One that is almost unbearable to read. Actually, both are very difficult to read, but in different ways. One character's life makes you think not only of her outlook but forces you to truly take an introspective look. From another's viewpoint as well as how you look at the world. While you are reading it, it is hard to imagine that it was written by a white, female author. Jodi Picoult’s SMALL GREAT THINGS. This book is so riveting as it strikes a chord. Given the state of race relations in our country, the story is all the more haunting. To say that the issue of racial inequality has actually taken a turn for the worse, would be an understatement. The disparity in everyday life. I found myself doubting things that I have said, whom I may have inadvertently hurt or offended with no malicious intent. Reading this book made me sick to my stomach. But, I read on. It is important. Picoult is trying to get a message across. Please don't misunderstand, I was enthralled by the book. The story is passionate, intense, and portrays a deep struggle, which you want to read.

I imagine some people will be doubters. How could the author possibly understand this situation, even if she is writing fiction. I have read interviews about the depth of research that she put into this book. She is not claiming to be an expert. She based it on a true story. The title comes from a line in a famous speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s: If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

The story is about a nurse, no ordinary nurse, but one who is dedicated and well regarded, with a twenty-year career at the hospital where ‘the incident’ occurs. A husband and wife have just had their first baby. When the nurse comes into their room, to take over the shift of another labor and delivery nurse, upon seeing her, the parents, who are white supremacists, see that she is black and immediately request to see her supervisor, whom they tell, in no uncertain terms, that this woman is not to touch their baby. What unfolds next is a devastating. Both of their lives take a turn neither could have predicted. The story is told from both sides. Heartbreak from the nurse’s and mistrust of everyone she encounters. She has noticed this before or rather, has worked hard to rise above it, but now it is all surfacing and cannot be ignored. The extremely racist man is angered to the point of revenge and his wife is shattered and taken to bed and depression.

Some books make you think. Some books turn you to a fantasy world. Some books make you step outside of yourself and think how others feel. SMALL GREAT THINGS makes you think, step outside of yourself, take another's perspective, and re-think your beliefs, and step outside of the fantasy world you have been living in, where all people are treated equally. It is both disturbing, heartbreaking and enlightening.

I commend Picoult for taking on the writing of a potentially controversial subject and for tackling it with a story that has great depth and feeling.

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J. Merlich

Full of hate, violence and politics

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2018

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I love Jodi's books, but this was far from her usual writing style. I am sick of having authors political views inserted into the story line. As a neonatal ICU nurse, the actions of the hospital lawyer, fellow nurses and Ruth herself would never have occurred. Any nurse observing a baby go into respiratory arrest would i immediately start to resuscitate and call for help. It was also stated that the baby s blood sugar was stable at 56. This is a medical emergency requiring immediate glucose. The Hospital lawyer would never throw a nurse under the bus like she did. And, even worse, Ruth would never have been handcuffed at 3am and charged with murder. Ridiculous!! The excessive violence and hate was overdone. It seemed like racism in both sides of the coin, with every stereotype of African Americans and Whites. Was this story set in 1960 or 2018? The real problem of racism should be portrayed much more realistically, as it is a serious subject. Ruth was lighter in color than her darker sister and had a good education, honor student son, and nice house. Her sister was darker skin, lived in low income housing, and her kids ran wild. The white people were very successful, and had high paying jobs. it goes on and on

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BridgettTop Contributor: Eye Makeup

I had a love/hate relationship with this novel...

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2018

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What do you rate a book that you love and hate equally?

What I loved:
1. That she (Jodi Picoult) tried. I truly believe this will make many Caucasian folks, myself included, think.

2. I literally couldn't put this book down. I read most of it yesterday, and finished it up this morning after homeschooling my kids. It's a very well done story.

3. Micah, Edison, Davis, and Violet all made me smile.

What I didn't love:
1. Turk, Brittany, Francis, Kennedy, and Ruth...I found myself feeling angry at ALL of them at points throughout this novel. All were racist in their own right, just to varying degrees and for different reasons.

2. The epilogue...a little too "sunshiny" for me.

3. Tons of minute inaccuracies about the medical field. For instance, there is NO WAY a note on a chart would prevent a nurse from performing life-saving procedures on an infant...even if her supervisor had instructed her not to. Our oath (yes, I'm an RN), is far too important.

Overall, I feel this is an incredibly timely novel, with the NFL/kneeling controversy and the #blacklives matter efforts, followed quickly by #alllivesmatter, and because of our current divisive, rhetoric-spewing president. Having said that, I can certainly understand why it may not be a favorite of those who relate closely to Ruth.

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Meg Corrigan, Author, Speaker, Trainer

An Amazing and Important Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2020

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I read this book during the post-election frenzies created by Donald tRump after he lost to Joe Biden. The Proud Boys are protesting, along with thousands of other tRump cult members, tearing our nation apart with their anger and hate. Many elected legislators refuse to drop the false narrative tRump has created. Although I am 99.9% certain Biden will assume the presidency on January 20, 2021, what I am NOT sure of is whether anyone will get killed in the process. In Jodi Picoult's novel Small Great Things, Turk Bauer was a character I did not know. It sickened me to read his story because it's the same story we have been seeing unfolding every day for the last four interminable years tRump has occupied the Oval Office. I thought we had come so far in our nation...until tRump, and then George Floyd's death at the hands of police. That's when I really became aware of my white privilege, how I needed to face my own part in the racism issues in our nation. Picoult's book was further validation of what I should have understood long ago: hate and love are strong emotions that can make or break people, and systemic racism in our nation began with slavery but did not end by any means when the Union Army "won" the Civil War. Racism simply went underground for 150 years. It has reared its ugly head during tRump's reign or horror, and it needs to be dealt with once again before we lose our democracy. Picoult's riveting novel should leave no reader ambiguous about the importance of stamping out racism, starting today.

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John A. Hill

One of the best reads ever

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2022

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This is definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. Although it is a work of fiction, it could just as easily be a documentary of an actual death and murder trial in the USA.
I grew up with the privilege of a white man in the Midwest. I never really acknowledged nor embraced the Asian half of my heritage until much later in life. During my retirement, I have worked with the unsheltered community in our area and am reminded of the great privilege that I have.
Much like Ms Picoult, there is some personal shame in recognizing my own biases and silence over the years. (Do yourself a favor and read her comments at the end.)
This was the first time I've read this author. The book was recommended to me. I will add her to my list of authors to follow and also recommend this book to others.
The character development is excellent.
The story is believable.
The author's use of each character telling the story as they see it is done so very well that it's easy to forget this is one person's story and you find yourself reading the stories of all of the main players.

I should mention - I almost stopped reading after the first couple of chapters. I felt the injustice of what was to come would make me angry, and who reads fiction to become angry?
If you get to that point, press on. It's rare that a fictional work inspires growth and evolution the way this one does.

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Tami & Jeremy

Draws you in, hooks you ... and educates you

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2018

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I just finished reading this. When I first saw it, I wasn't going to get it. The book is about a black labor and delivery nurse who is charged with murdering one of the newborns on the L & D ward. The description of the book makes no bones about racism playing a part in the story. I wasn't going to read it because I didn't believe that a white woman could do justice to the issue of racism.

I was wrong. The book is not just a good read, something that draws you in immediately and hooks you. It presents the issue of racism in the way of one white ally helping other white people to understand how pervasive racism is. It presents the issue of racism as not simply disliking people of color but also illustrates - practically takes you by the hand and walks you through - how racism is a systemic issue, how it's about power; who has it, who doesn't.

Once you finish reading the story, please take the time to read the author's note!

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5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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