Repeatedly resorted to the work of a contemporary American author named Jodi Picoult. Each time in her novels she uses two tricks: she raises one of the acute socially pressing topics and involves her characters in the judicial process. The Color of Life is primarily about racism in the United States, about discrimination against African Americans, about social injustice, about the savage hatred of some members of the white race.
Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-six novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Small Great Things, A Spark of Light, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.
At the beginning of the book, the reader is introduced to a young family, Turk and Brit, who have just become the happy parents of their firstborn. They admire the miracle they have brought into the world, enjoy coming up with a name, look for each other's similarities in the baby, and enjoy life in every way possible. A professional nurse comes to visit the mother and the baby, a medical worker with twenty years of experience and a wonderful person. But there is a BUT. The nurse is black!!! By the way, Ruth is the only African American in the entire clinic and she is the one who was lucky enough to get a peek into a room with people who hate blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews and other ethnicities. Turk and Brit are racists, they are members of the North American Death Squad, activists of the Invisible Empire Camp, fiercely believe in White supremacy, and study Mein Kamf.
By the way, Jodie Picoult did a great job of collecting information about the racists, I have been curious about this topic for a long time, ever since the movie "American History X", I did not go into much depth, but I learned a lot of interesting things in this particular novel.
Fantastic description of the racist Turk, his character, his attitude to life, his feelings. Beautifully conveyed his emotions towards people of other nationalities: his resentment and frustration, his hatred and anger. I could see and imagine him as a real man, resentful of everyone, demanding a public lynching of everyone who doesn't look like him.
When Turk bought groceries, he would always pay attention to the symbols on the packaging. If he saw a sign stating that it was a kosher product on which the buyer was paying Jewish Mafia tax, he never bought it. The newlyweds also gave up wedding rings because they didn't want to pay a percentage to the Jewish jewelry kings. He hated Latinos more than Asians and Jews more than Latinos. But at the very top of the contempt chart were blacks. He also hated the so-called White anti-racists and considered them traitors. He sincerely believed that Anglo-Saxons in the United States had become a minority, that they were always under attack and always had to wriggle to survive. At the same time, the angry guy would gather a crowd of similarly scumbag skinheads, seek out colored, drunken gays in dark alleyways near bars and show them who was boss, so that they would not be forgotten.
Going back to the story, I'll tell you the scary part... the skinhead baby died on his third day of life and was blamed for his death on a black nurse. They found the dead baby in the company of Nurse Ruth, with bruises on his chest. No one saw what really happened. No one believes the black nurse's word. Could Ruth have reacted so wildly to the verbal altercation with the young parents, resent being suspended by her superiors because of it, and hurt an innocent child? Were her actions intentional and deliberate, were they threatening and harmful?
The reader learns one of the first things about the events of that day, but it is at the trial that the characters' character is revealed even more widely. The distraught parents, who want to find a scapegoat, no longer hide the swastika tattoo under their hair (on their heads), they show it to all and sundry. Thunder and lightning, anger and rage, hatred and spite just oozes from the prosecution. The law of meanness - the prosecutor turned out to be colored, too.
The story is told from different points of view, in three voices (Ruth, Turk and Kennedy's lawyer), where each in his own way sees the problem and the way out of it. You can see that the author is interested in the subject of racism, you can see her desire to show that the problem in her country exists and should not be hushed up about it. The book mentions President Abama and describes people's dissatisfaction with him and his rule. Picolt is trying to touch the heartstrings of concerned readers with her sayings. I liked the idea that when a white man tries too hard not to appear racist, he is bound to overreact and suppress his true feelings about the black man.
The plot is based on the true story of a black nurse who encountered a disgruntled racist at work. In the afterword, Picoult admits that she has wanted to write a book about racism for a long time, tried but failed, and the story of Ruth's prototype forced her to take it on again. To more naturally describe the main character, the author had to meet former skinheads, she had to understand the nature of their hatred of the different and enrich the vocabulary of Turk.
The Color of Life addresses serious questions of social injustice, revealing the secret origins of some of the main characters and the secret origin of their hatred. Picoult is often accused of making the reader feel strongly for the main character, suffer through the book, and shed streams of tears. There is a lot of emotion and reflection during the reading and afterwards, but no tear-jerking by the author, one is guaranteed to read with dry eyes.
This article was sponsored by Andrew Lehr
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