First a note about the length of books. I downloaded this one from the library on CloudLibrary. It shows it as 420 pages. My wife downloaded it using the library Libby ap, which shows it as being 609 pages. I have no idea how many pages there are in the paper edition, but it seems to me to be an average length novel- probably a little over 300 pages, depending on font and page sizes, and the layout. Perhaps the time it takes the average reader to get through a book is a better metric- in this case, I would guess about ten hours.
In 2015, the neonatal son of a neo-Nazi white supremist couple dies after being cared for by an experienced black labor and delivery nurse. I won’t give away the details of the intricate supremely well-designed plot, but the unrecognized and unacknowledged biases of all of the characters will force the reader to consider their own biases. The suspense of not knowing the fate of the black nurse and the white supremist thug is maintained until the very end. If you can anticipate the surprising but realistic twists in the last few chapters, you should be writing mystery novels, not just reading them.
The action is set in New Haven, giving me the extra pleasure of recalling my three years there, including at Yale-New Haven and West Haven hospitals, (but not the fictional West Haven Mercy Hospital.) The details of the hospital routines, the actions of the medical and nursing staff, and the stresses of dealing with unexpected emergencies, especially in obstetrics and paediatrics, are all spot on. I hesitate to relate my own disastrous experience in obstetrics but here it is. My first delivery, as a third year medical student, was a term stillborn to a haemorrhaging lady who had been trying to get pregnant for six years, the same night as her husband died suddenly of a pulmonary embolus. No wonder I still hate obstetrics fifty two years later.
The story is narrated in the voices of the main characters, with abundant dry humour, provided principally in the character and observations of the white female public defender of the black nurse. The legal maneuvering and intricacies are equal to anything from John Grisham. The paranoid conspiracy theories preached by the white supremists are no less absurd than those promulgated by some Trump supporters. Much of the dialogue is politically incorrect and jarring but fits the characters.
So many great quotes and astute observations. From the labor and delivery nurse: “Babies are such blank slates. They don’t come into this world with the assumptions their parents have made, or the promises their church will give, or the ability to sort people into groups they like and don’t like. They don’t come into this world with anything, really, except a need for comfort. And they will take it from anyone, without judging the giver.I wonder how long it takes before the polish given by nature gets worn off by nurture.”
From the public defender: “When you start to see the seedy underbelly of America,…..it makes you want to live in Canada.”
And just what does “flesh coloured” advertising of Bandaids or panty hose say to a black person?
Once there is widespread recognition that there is no biological basis for the existence of different races of Homo sapiens, a day may come when even use of the words ‘racist’ and ‘racism’and the plural of the word ‘race’ in relation to humans will come to be regarded as quaintly anachronistic based on misconceptions, like the 17th century word ‘miasma’ once used to explain epidemics. I can dream.
Such prolific novelists as Picoult seldom produce anything that gives the reader much food for thought, but there is lots of that here. Like Jeanine Cummins for American Dirt she has been criticized for “cultural misappropriation” but her keen insights into the complexities of relations between people of different skin colours are quite rare and laudatory. We are endlessly bombarded with media stories about supposedly racist incidents and racism accusations are at times unwarranted or overblown. But the issues as of today are real and need to be addressed urgently.
A great read that I will recommend to my book club.
Thanks, Andra.
The Passionate Reader 