Nineteen Minutes

Nineteen Minutes

YA/adult fiction
"By the time you read this I hope to be dead.
You can't undo something that's happened; you can't take back a
word that's been said out loud. You'll think of me and wish you had
been able to talk me out of this. You'll try to figure out what would
have been the right thing to say, to do. I guess I should tell you,
Don't blame yourself; this isn't your fault, but that would be a lie.
We both know that I didn't get here by myself.
You'll cry at my funeral. You'll say it didn't have to be this
way. You will act like everyone expects you to. But will you miss me?
More important--will I miss you?
Does either of us really want to know the answer to that
question?"
Holy Hannah! I can't imagine anyone putting down Jodi Picault's
Nineteen Minutes after reading those first paragraphs.
March 6 seems like an ordinairy day in Sterling, New Hampshire.
Judge Alex is running late but makes breakfast for her daughter,
Josie. Josie dumps the eggs when her mother is out of the house. Her
boyfriend, Matt, tries to talk her into cutting school. Detective
Patrick sets off to drive evidence to the state lab. Midwife Lucy
delivers a baby.
Their lives and those of many other Sterling residents are about
to change in the worst possible way. All Hell breaks loose in the
high school. Lucy's son, Peter, is on a shooting rampage. He's also
set off a bomb. Matt lies dead, Josie beside him. Patrick rushes
through the school desperately trying to find and disarm the shooter.
When it's over bleeding bodies are scattered through the
school. Ten victims are dead. Other students are horribly injured,
including one boy who will probably never walk again. Crime scene
investigators go about their grim work. Peter is in the police station.
In a small town nothing will ever be the same.
As she did in The Pact, which we just looked at, Picoult puts
the reader in the investigator's seat. In the present you follow the
main characters from the immediate aftermath of the shooting through
the trial. Flashbacks present the story of a boy who was bullied from
his very first day in school and a school system that did a good job
of not seeing what was going on.
Picoult was motivated to tackle the tough topic of school
shootings by witnessing her children's experiences of being bullied
and fitting in. She was aided in developing the story by the epiphany
that there's a connection between school bullying and adult judgement
of others considered deviantly different. How can the students act
better when those running the school exhibit prejudice? In her
acknowledgements she writes, "To the thousands of kids out there who
are a little bit different, a little bit scared, and a little bit
unpopular: this one's for you."
In the question and answer section of the book she elaborates on
this:
"If I could say one thing to the legions of teens out there who
wake up every morning and wish they didn't have to go to school, it
would be this--and I'm saying it as both a mom and a writer: stay the
course. You will find someone like you; you will fit in one day. And
know that even the cool kids, the popular kids, worry that someone
will find out their secret: that they worry about fitting in, just
like you do."
On a personal note, I sure could use a visit from Nancy Drew and her
chums. Yesterday I was about to go to campus when I couldn't find my
pocketbook which has my wallet, money, and Mainecard (student ID). So
except for working in Community Garden a couple of hours I was
cleaning any part of the house it could be in. I know it's in the
house because Eugene needed something from it Sunday afternoon and I
didn't go anywhere rainy Monday. Today I got up at 5:00 to renew the
search. So far no luck. I really want to find it before tomorrow
because I use it to punch in at work.
A great big shout out goes out to Jodi Picault who is in my best
mystery writer trinity.
jules hathaway


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