Book Review - ‘A Spark of Light’

20.03.2010 | Book Review | A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult

I’ve long loved Jodi Picoult’s novels. She generally takes a thorny ethical issue, researches it thoroughly and brings it to life with a well defined group of characters. I still remember the fury I felt (and still feel, and will forever feel onwards) when the film adaptation of her novel My Sister’s Keeper cut the most essential and thought-provoking twist in the entire book. A Spark of Light will go down as one of my favourites. Set in an abortion clinic in Mississippi in a world where facilities are being held to such stringent measures that many are forced to close down, it feels very of the moment. Packed full of facts and figures, at times the novel can feel a little like an educational lecture in disguise, but generally the breadth of the research means that it is a compulsively readable, eye-opening story. An equal amount of time is spent on the arguments and beliefs of both those who are either pro-life or pro-choice so it feels like a book that doesn’t alienate anyone and really encourages independent thought. 

The story begins in the middle of a hostage situation at The Center, a women’s reproductive centre in Mississippi. One man, George Goddard, has stormed the centre, armed only with a gun and a score to settle. Another man, Hugh McElroy, is the police negotiator trying to get George to give himself and the hostages up safely. We know that there have already been some deaths. We know that Hugh’s daughter Wren is one of the hostages. 

The story unfolds in reverse, from a stand-off between Hugh and George outside the centre with Wren in the middle, back one hour at a time right up until the morning of the shooting. Each character, shooter, hostages and Hugh, have their own reasons for being at The Center that day and these are beautifully eked out over the course of the novel. Both Hugh and George have a lot in common. Both are hardworking, devoted single fathers to daughters and the way in which Picoult traces how their lives unfolded until they find themselves on different sides in the same situation is masterful. 

There’s a lot to digest in this novel and sometimes the backwards storytelling device irked me as I found some of the details repetitive and struggled to remember from chapter to chapter exactly who knew what about each other. It’s a small complaint though in a novel that make the medical information and statistic around abortion accessible and real. 

(Illustrations by Sofi Rose)