Part One

Thus far “Nineteen Minutes” has been a real page-turner. When I checked to see how far I was supposed to read for the first section I was mad that it was just until page eighty-nine—I didn’t want to have to stop to blog. But, I suppose that’s ok because there is already so much to talk about.

What stands out the most to me is the way that Jodi Picoult is able to create so many well-developed characters and that everyone, I think, would be able to relate to at least one if not many. At first the sheer number of characters was daunting, I didn’t know how I would remember them all, but Picoult does such a great job of making her characters seem real that it’s hard to mix them up like it would be hard to mix your family members up. I really feel like I know her characters and if one of them simply walked into the room and sat down I could tell you who it was.

I’m also amazed with the sheer content in “Nineteen Minutes.” Before I began reading I assumed like many “trendy” books, reading Picoult would be exciting but as sometimes is the case, lacking literarily. However, she does an amazing job in providing meaningful and detailed back-stories that add great depth to her characters as well as connecting them in obvious but not always readily apparent ways.

After reading the synopsis from Miss Walker’s list I wasn’t prepared for the full onslaught of what happens in the story. I assumed that someone would simply kill their life long bully, end of story, but what Peter Houghton did, massacring classmates, some of whom obviously did not have anything to do with his torment, really freaked me out. I think living in the world we do has made us, for the most part, rather numb to freakish violence, but after reading just eighty-nine pages it has allowed me to become more akin to the people involved than I think just hearing about on the news could ever provide. Because of this this tragedy, even though, fictional seems more real and disturbing than Virginia Tech or Columbine and it really makes me wonder about the world we live in and my place in it.
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