For her new book, “Small Great Things,” best-selling author Jodi Picoult says she read more than she has for any project. Once she started researching her novel about a black labor and delivery nurse and a white supremacist’s newborn, Picoult says she realized how little she had thought or understood about race relations and how privileged she is as a white woman.
BOOKS: How would you describe yourself as a reader generally?
PICOULT: I read fiction for pleasure. One book at a time. And nonfiction for research.
BOOKS: What did you read while researching your recent book that you would recommend?
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PICOULT: Melissa V. Harris-Perry’s “Sister Citizen” or Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.” Alexander’s book is about how incarceration created a new form of enslavement. It’s deeply moving and deeply upsetting. Perry’s book is about the stereotypes attributed to African-American women, from sexy woman to angry woman, and how those have played into American culture and politics.
BOOKS: Is there one book about race you wish everyone would read?
PICOULT: “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which is about what it means to be a black man in America. I actually read that book in a day, and then I bought 10 copies and passed them out to people I know because I was so upset and shocked.
BOOKS: Are there novels that you think have done a good job of addressing race?
PICOULT: “Beloved” by Toni Morrison. When I was at Princeton I got to hear her read from that novel as a work-in-progress. You could’ve heard a pin drop in that room. The words were alive. Also Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, who I read a lot of in college, and Edwidge Danticat.
BOOKS: Do you think a novel can adequately address race?
PICOULT: I think when it comes to race and racism, fiction is vitally important. People don’t know how to enter this conversation and worry they will offend someone. Fiction is this amazing springboard because the situations are fake so the stakes are much lower. You can talk about race by talking about a book.
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BOOKS: Are you still reading about this?
PICOULT: Interestingly my new book has stayed with me longer than any other book. Usually by now I would have started research for another book, but I don’t want to let go. I’ve become so much more aware of and have been reading far more authors of color because I want to hear those voices. I recently read “The Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead’s book, which is every bit as extraordinary as people say.
BOOKS: Which authors of color do you wish were better known?
PICOULT: Celeste Ng, Nicola Yoon, one of the best young adult writers out there, Jesmyn Ward, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Roxane Gay, among others.
BOOKS: What are the books stacked on your nightstand?
PICOULT: I’ll tell you what’s on my proverbial nightstand, my Kindle. The books that I downloaded and hope to read before Christmas are Emma Donoghue’s “The Wonder” and Jennifer Niven’s “Holding up the Universe.” Also “Faithful” by Alice Hoffman. She’s my favorite writer of all time. I will trade you a child to get an advance copy of one of her books.
BOOKS: Do you read exclusively American contemporary writers?
PICOULT: I tend to. Every now and then I’ll revisit “Pride and Prejudice,” “Jane Eyre,” or Hemingway. I don’t do that often now though because I don’t have much time. So I tend to read authors who are alive and kicking and whom I can send a note and say your book made my week.
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BOOKS: Do you read other kinds of books, such as self-help?
PICOULT: I never read self-help because I think the act of writing a novel is so therapeutic. That’s my act of self-help. Everyone’s been talking about Marie Kondo’s “Spark Joy” book about organizing, but all you have to do is go clean out your closet.
AMY SUTHERLAND
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