Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

 

Ruth Jefferson has been a labor and delivery nurse in the same Connecticut hospital for twenty years and the day's shift starts like any other.  As she makes her rounds, she is shocked when a set of new parents flinch away from her and ask to see her supervisor.  The parents are white supremacists and insist that their baby not be touched by any African American nurses.  The supervisor assigns the parents to another nurse and puts a note in the child's folder.  Ruth is appalled and shocked that her supervisor has not backed her up but is busy enough.

Then tragedy strikes.  After the baby's circumcision, he is in the nursery.  Ruth has stopped there for a moment's rest and is left in charge of the nursery when an emergency c-section occurs.  When she checks the baby, he seems to be having issues breathing.  She tries to help, but then steps away when her supervisor comes in to avoid being reprimanded.  The baby stops breathing and although everyone there works on him, dies.  

The parents are sure it is Ruth's fault.  They saw her giving him heart compressions and thought it was too hard.  The father goes to the police and files a complaint with them.  The hospital throws Ruth under the bus and she is suspended, as is her license.  How will Ruth live?  What will happen to her son, Edison, about to head off to college?

Ruth is assigned Kennedy, a white public defender.  Kennedy is sure she knows exactly how to win the case and insists that race needs to be left out of the courtroom.  An African American public figure rounds up support for Ruth and the white supremacists are out in force.  It is a volatile situation that could boil over at any second.  

Jodi Picoult is known for writing about social issues and in this novel she takes on race relations.  Not just the overt discrimination that is easy to see and condemn but the hidden discriminations that have minorities fighting for all that comes unbidden to the majority race.  It is a worthy goal and may make some readers consider race in a new light, but misses the boat for those already aware of the issues and working to correct them as it is a bit heavy-handed in the treatment.  Ruth and her allies are everything good while those opposed are everything bad; the nuances lost in the lesson.  This book is recommended for readers of literary ficiton.