6/8/2023 0 Comments Mercy by jodi picoultWe know what’s going to happen, and instead of breathlessly leading us to an ending, Picoult forces us to focus on the flesh and feelings of everyone who populates the world she has drawn. The story is told in real time, but backwards, a startlingly effective framing device as its texture and tone take on a greater weight than the events it is comprised of.In a lesser writer’s hands, A Spark Of Light could simply be a pacy page turner, but Picoult’s timing is a Brechtian masterstroke. Picoult sees humans at their best, while understanding them at their most fragile. “ A Spark Of Light is a book written with warmth and urgency. “This is Jodi Picoult at her best: tackling an emotional hot-button issue and putting a human face on it.” As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.Īfter rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center-a women’s reproductive health services clinic -its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. A powerful and provocative novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis.
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