The story centres around Ruth Jefferson, an experienced African-American labour and delivery nurse who finds herself at the centre of a legal battle when she's accused of causing the death of Turk’s son. Turk is a White supremacist who has asked that Ruth doesn’t treat his son, but she is left alone with the baby when the other (White) nurses are called to an emergency C-section. We follow the incident and the trial through the eyes of Ruth, Turk, and Kennedy, a privileged white lawyer who takes Ruth’s case as a public defender. The central theme is, of course, racial bias in the American justice system.
I’ll start by saying that the book was published in 2016. A lot has happened since then, especially in terms of race relations in the US. This book was written before George Floyd, before the prominent Black Lives Matter protests (the movement started a few years before publication), and before Kamala Harris was a viable candidate for the presidency.
Many of the issues in the book are, of course, still relevant. There is still a racial bias in the American justice system. There is still police brutality aimed at Black people. Experiences of Black and White people in the US differ significantly, as Ruth teaches Kennedy throughout the book. But I feel that today, this book reads like it’s trying too hard to talk to White people about race. As Roxane Gay wrote, it’s a good try, but “if the politics overcomes the prose, then it becomes something other than a novel.”
As a starting point for discussing contemporary race relations in the US, the book is as good as any. It tackles the bias in the justice system, the problem with being “postracial”, especially as a White person, and the many consequences of decades of racism. There’s quite a lot of backstory, the plot points are somewhat contrived, and the end twist is inexplicable. But overall, it’s a highly readable book.
I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything I didn’t already know about race relations in the US from the book. That said, I’ve been reading and learning about the topic for the better part of a decade at this point. Perhaps this book would have compelled me to start learning about it if I hadn't.
Favourite quotes:
“… overlooking either side of the ornate door were gargoyles, their granite faces carved from my nightmares.” (p. 3)
“Anger, it turns out, is a renewable source of fuel.” (p. 28)
“Is it better not knowing the ugly truth, and pretending it doesn’t exist? Or is it better to confront it, even though that knowledge may be a weight you carry around forever?” (p. 65)
“My mother, who grew up in North Carolina on the debutante circuit, believes there is nothing a little cuticle softener and eye cream can’t fix.” (p. 82)
“What no one told me about grief is how lonely it is.” (p. 105)
“Once a bleeding heart calluses into realism, victories become individual ones.” (p. 204)
“The act of saving a life can look pretty violent” (p. 379).
“Freedom is the fragile neck of a daffodil, after the longest of winters.” (p. 485)
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