The Printed Page

Welcome to By the Chapter. This week’s featured book is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Sharing hosting duties with me this week is Elizabeth from As usual, I need more bookshelves.

***

If you’re not familiar with Nineteen Minutes here’s a little background on the book:

Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endure years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.

***

When is it almost bearable to read about a school shooting? When it’s fictionalized and the author doesn’t dwell on the event itself but instead chooses to tell the story leading up to the shooting. Usually we only hear about the incident and its devastatingly horrific aftermath. We know little if anything about what leads a kid to kill his classmates. In Nineteen Minutes Ms. Picoult showcases one boy’s turbulent journey from a bullied child to a teenager who sees no escape from this torture except to end it himself. He’s asked for help only to find he’s the one being punished. The instigator escapes and the retaliator is held accountable. A learned behavior has become not to seek assistance from adults because it leads to escalated bullying from his peers. He wants nothing more than for it to stop, just stop. Finally with tragic consequences it does stop, for Peter, those who made his life a living hell and innocents caught in the line of fire.

This story is heartbreaking any way you look it. There’s the Houghton’s naivety – how does one not feel for parents who wake up one morning to find their child has killed classmates. Then again, we question how they could not know. There’s Patrick – the detective who always feels he’s too late, that he’s let someone down. Alex and Josie – they both suffer from Alex’s upbringing at the hands of a father who dealt in facts and not feelings. On so many levels I was emotionally involved with all of these characters. That said I still can’t get Peter out of my mind. He’s haunted me this week. Actually I didn’t sleep very well the first night I read this story. I tossed and turned finding myself thinking about him at the oddest times. While he is far from being the only victim his story is the one I most identify with. While I can’t condone his actions I feel the strongest empathy for him.

Next to My Sister’s Keeper this is my favorite Jodi Picoult book. I admire the way she is able to draw me into the story and write characters I care about. She takes hot button issues and strips them down to their barest human emotion. She knows how to build a story from start to finish including many little details and salient points. As nothing is ever black and white in her stories it’s how her characters deal with the circumstances where her writing shines. There is a twist in this one that I never saw coming. While it initially took me by surprise in mulling over the story line I should have seen it coming. There were more than enough clues and I knew this kid had a secret. I just didn’t know how explosive it was going to be. My one very minor issue with this story is the do-over I felt she gave Alex. Instead of working on her relationship with Josie she was given an easy out.

Unfortunately school shootings have become a reality instead of living only in the pages of a fictional story. In recent years they have left their indelible mark on our world. This is a story that should be read by adults and kids alike. It should be shared and talked about around the family dinner table.

***

If you’ve read, or are currently reading, Nineteen Minutes please share your thoughts with us.

***
This week’s reading scheduling:
Monday: The Printed Page
Wednesday: Elizabeth from As usual, I need more bookshelves
Friday: The Printed Page/Elizabeth from As usual, I need more bookshelves

***