Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

[Cross-posted at my epinions account]

If you were a teenager in any American high school when the Columbine school shooting took place, you know that times have changed compared to “the good old days” (read: before Columbine). School shootings have become more common, but school security has also risen, as has the level of awareness about the potential for student violence against other students. Schools no longer trust students, and students no longer view school as a safe haven.

This type of tragedy continues to occur. The story is so often the same – a young white boy, tormented for years by “the popular kids,” decides to take control of the situation in the most unimaginable way. Sometimes he shoots himself as well, and sometimes he doesn’t – but regardless, we do not usually gain much deep understanding of the student and what drove him to this extreme. We always have hindsight, but never foresight, and rarely insight.

Jodi Picoult’s newest novel, “Nineteen Minutes,” is a start. It isn’t based on a particular school shooting, and yet you can sense echoes of each of them in this page-turner (or in my case, an absolutely unpausable audiobook). It’s clear from Picoult’s detailed accounts that she did her research; you can feel the ghosts of real young victims as you read about each fictional fallen child. You feel their peers’ and parents’ pain – and yet you find yourself torn between grief for their loss and sympathy for Peter Houghton, the young shooter who has suffered for years at the hands of some of his very victims. If you have ever struggled to understand the reason — not the excuse, mind you, but just the *reason* — some teens feel that they have to resort to violence in this manner, this book will open your eyes.

“Nineteen Minutes” refers to the duration of the shooting. However, the bulk of the book focuses not on the shooting itself, but on the periods before and after. Like many Picoult novels, the novel centers around a court trial, but the bulk of the book, written outside of any chronological order, details both the aftermath and the years, weeks, days and moments leading up to the tragic event.

The book chronicles the young Peter’s development over the years, telling stories from his point of view (from age kindergarten to eighteen). It also shares the thoughts of of other key characters in the novel. That is one of the things I love about Jodi Picoult novels; none of her characters are omniscient, but from sharing each of the actors’ limited perspectives, the reader can develop a more complete sense of the story. You see Peter through the eyes of his few friends, his classmates, his parents, his lawyer, and his victims, and you look back at them through Peter’s eyes. Most importantly, you see Peter as he sees himself.

Jodi Picoult has once again funneled a seemingly black and white situation through the prism of her storytelling genius, and repainted it in shades of grey on a paper canvas (with the usual Picoult-style surprise ending that just might make you drop the book in shock). If you ever wanted to understand how such a young person could feel so helpless and hopeless that he might resort to violence, pick up Picoult’s book. If anything, an understanding of this helplessness may help us to reach these students before they reach their own limit.

Buy Nineteen Minutes at Barnes & Noble [Hardcover; Audio CD] or Amazon.com [Hardcover; Audio CD]

View more Jodi Picoult novels:

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