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11 internautes sur 11 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Written with Love and Filled with Exceptional Insights, Avril 13 2007
We've read about too many school shootings. These are intensely sad events as young lives are ended and harmed while sickening fear is permanently released to further separate communities. We all blame the parents for being so clueless.
I wasn't sure I wanted to read a long novel about such an event. But I'm glad I did. Nineteen Minutes takes the bare facts of such an awful day and helps us see the whole experience from every perspective. And the book does so with a kind and gentle heart.
This shifting of the balance of our perceptions is accomplished by several well-performed techniques including many narrators (different students, three parents, the police, the defense attorney, and his wife), connections among the characters, and multiple back stories that reach literally into the womb. The book's theme is far more universal than school shootings: How we grow away from our real selves and the damage that does to us and others.
I was very impressed by the way that Ms. Picoult viewed every character with mostly sympathy, even when you might think of them as being unsympathetic from the facts. Each character is also mildly funny. She doesn't let the tragedy pull us too far away from the realities of everyday life. It's an extraordinary storytelling gift.
If you are like me, you'll probably feel that your faith in people is increased by reading this story rather than the reverse. That reaction also surprised me.
No matter what your age is I think you'll find this book will draw you back into those turbulent teen years when being popular meant way too much. It'll be an intense and self-revealing visit.
Bravo, Ms. Picoult! This is a remarkable book.
Highly recommended.
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3 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Picoult's Best!, Jui 9 2007
As one of the previous reviewers stated, I too was leary about reading about another school shooting, but decided to start the book and then decide whether or not to finish it. I couldn't put it down! Instead of a sappy book that tries to psychoanalyze the shooter and play on the reader's emotions, I was immersed in the story. Picoult does an amazing job of taking on an issue that is unfortunatley becoming too commonplace to the point that we are now desensitized to it and there is now only media coverage in the event of MASS casualty. She so gently shows that we are all to blame for these events. What particularly stood out for me was how many of the characters other than the shooter commit acts of violence on a daily basis whether in supposedly harmless teasing and playing pranks on "geeks", relationship violence, "mean girls", etc. that are socially acceptable. Yet it is the shooter that is singled out as being the villian. The real tradegy is that, without excusing his final act of retaliation, it is HE that really is the victim of society's norms of "being successful and making it in the world" (whether it be academic success, popularlity, fashion & beauty, etc.). Picoult exposes how we compromise our values and integrity to "fit in" and in so doing, deeply hurt others - not just ourselves. This book evoked alot of emotion and stayed with me for days after finishing it. You can't read this book without self-examination - how I relate to other people on a daily basis and my motives. Nineteen Minutes should be on the reading list of every high school Literature class.
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2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Emotionally Charged, Avril 14 2008
Peter Houghton a seventeen year old high school student has been enduring years of verbal and physical abuse when he is driven ever the edge. One more incident of bullying is the final straw leading Peter to commit an incomprehensible act of violence, a shooting rampage through the corridors of his high school. What could make a student turn against his fellow classmates?.......
This emotionally charged novel explores the consequences of bullying through the eyes: of the perpetrator, the judge assigned to the case and key witness. Jodi Picoult is especially gifted in making her characters seem believable and real, even in situations and circumstances that are uncommon and tragic. They are well defined and portrayed; you feel sympathy for someone pushed over the edge and pity for the clueless adults. The plot is riveting, poignant and provoking, it is presented with different points of view alternating back and forth between the past and the present. This novel's one flaw is the quick ending, which, as other reviewers have stated, does not seem realistic. Overall, an eye opener making you reflect and think, "How well do we know the people around us."I highly recommend this book.
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