Jodi Pucoult's 19 Minutes is a heartbreaking novel about an act of violence that shatters the small close-nit town of Sterling, New Hampshire. Peter, the 17 year old male protagonist who had been bullied his entire life turns the tables when he brings a gun to school and open fires on the students. The story closely follows the thoughts and lives of a few of the citizens of Sterling as their lives are forever changed by the shooting. Josie, the female protagonist and former friend of Peter watches her old friend shoot and kill her boyfriend only feet away from her. Traumatized and confused we see her life unfold and the plot twists as the truth is revealed about the abuse she had endured by her boyfriend and the role she played in his murder. Josie’s mother, Alex, is the judge assigned the case and is struggling to cope with the biggest court battle in her career as well as the struggling to help her depressed teenage daughter. The story also takes on the view of the lead detective on the case who is left to put the pieces together and is morally challenged when the evidence takes on an unexpected turn and he is forced to with his personal life. He learns the people closest to him are more involved than he knew. This quick passed story allows us to see the events unfold through the eyes of these characters and we soon realize that no situation is ever completely black or white. We are forced into the grey area as we step into the shoes of each character and see life through their eyes.
Jodi Pucoult has a unique writing technique. Each chapter is focused on the perspective of one of the different protagonists. She successfully allows each character to reveal their own characteristics in the chapters that follow their lives and how they experienced the events. This makes the story even more interesting and the characters even more convincing because they have their own personality, thoughts and feelings. Her writing style is exciting and each page grabbed my attention more and more. The dialogue was consistent with what I believe each character would say and her use of diction carried the story smoothly. Each character revealed more and more about themselves consciously and subconsciously as the story went on and I was able to connect with different parts of their lives. The setting, being in a small town in the states was foreign to me but it made for an exciting story of a small town with big secrets.
The first page of the book is a short suicide note. It starts off by saying, “By the time you read this, I hope to be dead.” I thought this was a really interesting way to start the story because at that point I had no idea who this note was from or who it was for. It is only revealed at the end of the book which was a really cool way to close the story. Another passage that appealed to me was also in the first chapter. It starts off by listing a bunch of things you can do in 19 minutes and then goes to say, “In nineteen minutes you can stop the world, or you can jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.” This obviously reflected on the title, “Nineteen Minutes”. I also thought It was a powerful opening because it foreshadowed on the events that were about to happen and gave the heads up that something drastic was about to happen in a very short period of time. The third passage I chose to write about was midway through the book. It was a small paragraph that took up the whole page and part of it said, “You are the ting that used to be normal, but that was so long ago, you cant even remember what it was like.” I think it was really smart of Jodi Picoult to include passages like this that are easy for anyone to connect with and speak specifically to the reader. I think anyone can relate to feeling abnormal and looking back at believing that maybe at one time you were exactly what ‘normal’ was suppose to be.
