It was a gorgeous day for our book club, and we had a wonderful discussion, using zoom technology as well. Small Great Things is a very well written book, but with some pretty dark, and deep topics. Racism, white supremacy, hate, grief (losing a newborn), the law, family relations, and poverty versus wealth are all major themes in this book. As has been the case for our recent books, it was not a unanimous decision about how well we liked it. Two really liked it, three thought it was very well written and redeeming in the end, but hard to read, and one was not a fan (and for once, that wasn't me!) I struggled during the first half of the book, and breezed through the second half, wanting to know the outcome.
It gave us a lot of topics to discuss and while we did really start with a good discussion on the book, recent current events had us straying off topic and talking about life as we are living it. So we probably did not give is as good a discussion as the book warranted, but it was definitely thought provoking.
Since all 6 of us in our book club are white women, we had a different discussion than if we had mixed races or sexes. We would all love the perspective of minority women, or men, or lawyers (since the law figures quite heavily) who have read this book. While told from the viewpoint of three different characters--Ruth, an African American nurse, Kennedy a white public defender and Turk, a white supremacist and grieving father, it was a linear read, and easy to follow, even if it was concerning some tough topics.
It was interesting exploring the different characters and their diverse backgrounds which shaped them into the people they became, but for me there were too many stereotypical characters. Once again for me, the end was a quick "let's end the book now, since it has gone 480 pages" and it tries to redeem all the characters and paint the picture that it all turned out well in spite of what happened.
Interesting read, but not my personal favorite.
Our next book is The Education of Ernie Dumas, by Ernest Dumas.