Roots and Fruits (Book Review of Small Great Things)

Oh once again, we are EMBROILED in chaos.

I am so sick of it. Ugh. Thank goodness I can just turn off the TV and do something constructive and valuable.

But all of this has reminded me of a book I read.

Not all of, but the sight of white nationalists in their sane outfits - not dressed in their golf gear. So odd. Or is it?

And with that said... fellas, the Klan wore hoods for a reason. Maybe ya'll should have worn them, because ya'll got put on blast on social media. Some of ya'll lost your jobs SAD).

But like I said, it reminded me of a book I read this winter.

Jodi Picoult's Small Great Things.

I like Jodi Picoult. She is not my favorite author, but she's on the list somewhere, easily in the top 20. I have read a few of her books, maybe 5 or 6. But anything I've read by her is entertaining and full of great themes and lessons to be learned. And I write long fiction in the same way she writes it, where each chapter is an alternating point of view. In her books, there are usually two or three main characters and the story moves along well from each point of view. I love reading and writing in that style.

So with that said, the story she tells in this novel is intriguing... and timely for days like this.

It's too hard to summarize the story without revealing the plot. But in a nutshell, it's based on a true story. It's about an black OBGYN nurse who is prohibited from caring for a newborn infant because the white supremacist father requested that no african-american nurses tend to his baby. Well, some unfortunate events take place and the nurse finds herself on trial, and the whole efficacy of the request by the father comes into question. The story is told from three points of view: the baby's father, the nurse, and the nurse's lawyer.

First of all, from the picture above, you can see that the author is white. But I tell you one thing, she was so very accurate when writing the experience of the black nurse, namely, the experiences that black women face in this country. I saw so much of myself in this character, in what I go through and how I am treated. It was painful to read Ruth's story, but more painful to read the detailed nuances. I saw where Jodi Picoult said that she had over 100 hours of interviews with black women, and that's how she understood and captured the essence of the character.

But the character who shocked me most, and what's also related to what goes on now, namely, what we all witnessed this weekend:

The portrayal of the white supremacist father.

So when I saw this weekend's chaos, I thought about the book.

The author goes into extreme detail concerning the who, what, where and why of how the father developed his views.

It was shocking just reading the whole radicalization process.

Because let's face it... no one becomes that way overnight. NOPE.

Everything is about process. EVERYTHING.

I'd never read anything like that before. So when I saw all these men this weekend carrying their tiki torches and dressed all conservatively in the pressed khakis and golf shirts, I thought "Yeah, unh-hunh, I know what's up."

And I'm glad I read that book. Because, yes, I know what's up. I got a glimpse into the whole white nationalist mindset. And it was NOT pretty. But it was necessary.

That's the best book by her that I have read. She stated in her afterword that  she knew she was a white woman of privilege and she was writing it to white people so that they could understand what  racism is about (And her afterword was one of the most powerful I have ever read in a book. WOW).

And it has helped me understand the whole white supremacist mindset.  And it's a bunch of craziness.

This is my thing: you know the tree by the fruit that it bears. And the fruit produced in this case is beyond suspect. If the fruit is rotten and full of hate, well....

And when I saw this weekend's events unfold... I just shook my head.

And thought of this book.

And when I saw our beloved President's attitude towards it all?

I folded my arms and just shook my head.

And I thought of this book. 

Oh what manner of fruit hangs from this tree!

That's all I got to say about that.