| It is a testament to the skill of an author who can | | | | community, we trace the connections between |
| take what is possibly the most egregiously | | | | families. As children, Rosie and Peter were best |
| sensational material and produce a work of fiction | | | | friends—until Rosie became popular and Peter |
| both measured and compassionate. Jodi Picoult | | | | an outcast. Peter’s mother Lucy, a midwife, |
| has succeeded in doing just that with Nineteen | | | | delivered Rosie. And Alex as judge may be |
| Minutes, her 2007 novel about a Columbine-like | | | | called upon to try Peter. |
| school shooting. | | | | What we come to see as the “why” of |
| The book starts with the shooting, or its | | | | this story is the sociological setting of high school, |
| immediate aftermath. From there the question | | | | a war ground where jocks rule and nerds suffer, |
| the book centers on is not who did | | | | the former subjecting the latter to humiliation and |
| it—eyewitnesses identify 17-year-old Peter | | | | outright cruelty. No adults step in to offer |
| Houghton—but on why. What Picoult does so | | | | refuge. They refuse to admit there could be a |
| brilliantly, as she has in her previous 13 novels, is | | | | problem let alone try to put a halt to it. |
| to sharpen our focus on the elemental | | | | There are a few disappointments with this book |
| ordinariness of the families and students involved, | | | | to be sure. Picoult falls back on some chintzy |
| perpetrator and victims alike. | | | | cliffhangers—she’s way too good a writer, |
| Family relationships form the core of this | | | | and this story is far too compelling, for her to pull |
| story—a Picoult trademark, as she has always | | | | those tricks. Some of the dialogue is not always |
| been willing to probe the fallible division between | | | | believable, too clever by half. And, really, are |
| nature and nurture. We peer into the | | | | adults that obtuse that they can ‘t see |
| before-and-after lives of Lacy and Lewis | | | | what’s under their noses? |
| Houghton, Peter’s parents, who are loving but | | | | Nonetheless, Picoult does the near |
| often ineffectual. We work our way into the | | | | impossible—building a character in Peter of |
| lives of Josie Cormier and her single mother | | | | great sympathy. We see both his struggle and |
| Alex. Alex is a judge, a role she has always | | | | at the same time his moral complexity. There |
| found easier than that of being a mother. | | | | are no judgments here, just explanations—to |
| And because this is a small closely-knit | | | | which all of us could pay heed. |