Bookclub Review: Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult

Synopsis:
In this emotionally charged novel, Jodi Picoult delves beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in our society.
In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.
Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex—whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded—must decide whether or not to step down. She’s torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can’t remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter’s rampage. Or can she? And Peter’s parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, ceaselessly examine the past to see what they might have said or done to compel their son to such extremes. Nineteen Minutes also features the return of two of Jodi Picoult’s characters—defense attorney Jordan McAfee from The Pact and Salem Falls, and Patrick DuCharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match.
Rich with psychological and social insight, Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, poignant, and thought-provoking novel that has at its center a haunting question. Do we ever really know someone?

My Review
I really enjoy reading Picoults books, the last one was slightly stagnate but this was another great read. After reading it I was inclined to dig out my copy of Bowling for Columbine to remind me the story behind this book was real once and wonder if things have changed, would a person still feel inclined that the only way to make a point was to go on a shooting rampage?

Australia has one serious shooting rampage, Port Arthur totally unprovoked and sadly classified a massacre. The reaction saw our federal government implement firearm control and we have no way of knowing if in the long term it will hope these sort of things, as if you wanted to get your hands on a gun I'm sure you could. But in my own life I can say I have only seen a "real" gun because my brother is a police officer, if he wasn't I'm sure I would live my life never having seen or handled one and that wouldn't be a bad thing.

Another thing that the book brought out is bullying and in one part of the book it stated that every child will remember vividly a school bully or when they were victimised. I do, it was nothing horrible but left me embarrassed and permanently cautious. We try and teach our kids it's wrong to pick on others, those different from ourselves but then in the real world we see big corporation squash the little ones, people with money and power getting away with what other would not, like Paris Hilton worming her way out of prison (thankfully they threw her back in). We see big cars pushing and jumping in front of little cars, I suffer this daily as I choose not to drive a four wheel drive. Kids see the advertised brands as better, so it's hard but deep down I think we know good from bad, oh we can only hope.

So "Nineteen Minutes" gets a thumbs up and a happy face from me :D