Jodi Picoult's 14th novel Nineteen Minutes describes the horror of a high school student's gun shooting rampage which leaves 9 students and 1 teacher dead. But, unlike newspapers or even news magazines, Picoult's novel goes into great depth about what might cause such tragedies. She describes in great detail the constant physical bullying, social humiliation, and obvious group exclusion which may be major causes for a student to "blow up".In this novel there are no one-sided "bad" persons. Everyone, including the killer is multi-dimensional, the kind of parent, friend, teacher, and townsperson that we each feel we are. It's easy to point the finger at a person who has pointed a gun but how many little insults and humiliations does it take to equal a bullet? Picoult's Nineteen Minutes forces us to look at all the sides. Her flashbacks and flashforwards keeps you wondering what the end result is even as you are sure there is no question what it has to be.
Excellent read. Would make good required reading for highschool students.
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