This book written before Virginia Tech but after Columbine

Kasey Cox

When’s the last time you stayed up all night, not looking at the clock because it didn’t matter what time it was, compelled to keep reading the book in your hands? Although I’m obviously a huge fan of books, I can honestly say I haven’t sacrificed my precious sleep time for a book in quite a while. That is, until I started reading Jodi Picoult’s newest novel, Nineteen Minutes.

Released on March 6, 2007, this is the same date on which the story opens, the date that Peter Houghton opens fire in his high school in Sterling, NH. Nineteen minutes later, ten people are dead, nineteen are wounded, and Peter has been taken into police custody. As the story unwinds from there, Picoult takes the reader back and forth in time, and allows us to see the story from the perspectives of many different characters whose lives the tragedy touches. This shifting chronology and round-robin of characters can often be confusing, dragging down the tempo of a novel, but in Picoult’s accomplished hands, this is seamless. As we follow the thoughts of Peter’s lawyer, the small town’s police chief, Peter’s mother, the local judge, and the judge’s daughter, Josie, the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, answering the question that is asked at all tragedies – why?

Although I have followed Jodi Picoult’s career for some time now – I had a chance to meet her when I lived in Vermont, and her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale, ranks among one of my favorite of all time – I have personally been disappointed by some of her novels that have gained national popularity. Picoult is known for her novels which plunge right to the heart of intense contemporary issues. Her characters, though believable and well-fleshed-out, are placed in situations where they must truly grapple with the question of how much they are willing to sacrifice for those they love. While this is an important question and makes for stories that are both thrilling and touching, I have often found Picoult’s resolutions to her stories a little too pat. For years, I believe Picoult has created beautiful, haunting novels that somehow just miss the mark. Not so with Nineteen Minutes. Here, the author is able to walk that fine line between touching, disturbing, and challenging without falling into contrived situations or melodrama. Here Picoult is tender but unflinching with all of her characters, as each explores his or her own contribution and response to the shooting. I was especially impressed with the author’s approach to Peter Houghton, filling in his life story as victim, while not excusing his guilt as shooter.

Several literary critics have asked, “Are we ready for a novel about school shootings?” It is a question that has also been asked of art, fiction, film, poetry dealing with September 11. My answer is that if the art deals as sensitively with everyone involved as Jodi Picoult’s new masterpiece does, than I give my resounding, YES.