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Review
`a series of bleakly beautiful vignettes that catch at the heart' --Marie Claire
'Morrison's prose is richly poetic' --Daily Mail
`Must Read' --Sunday Times
`Toni Morrison has done it again'
--TLS
'full of such scrupulous ... amplifications, Morrison's sedulous attention to details ... one measure of her sophistication as a writer.' --The New York Review of Books
`Morrison's prose is confident and secure, her language masterful...This is another penetrating and profoundly disquieting view of America's past'
--Historical Novels Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
'Morrison's prose is richly poetic' --Daily Mail
`Must Read' --Sunday Times
`Toni Morrison has done it again'
--TLS
'full of such scrupulous ... amplifications, Morrison's sedulous attention to details ... one measure of her sophistication as a writer.' --The New York Review of Books
`Morrison's prose is confident and secure, her language masterful...This is another penetrating and profoundly disquieting view of America's past'
--Historical Novels Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
`Unsettling, exquisitely written, and deeply moving, it's an amazing piece of work'
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.
Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.
All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.
Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple
Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.
All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.
Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple
Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not my favourite Toni Morrison book although I love her other works. It is beautifully, poetically written, and I was immediately drawn in and absorbed by the predicament of Jacob and the description of his home but I was confused by the constant shift in the narrative viewpoint between the four different women, two of whom appear to be no more than children even when pregnant. I was not always convinced that eleven or fourteen year old servant girls would think in such a sophisticated way.
This is a character-focused book which deals with feelings and fears and Morrison's themes of slavery and sexual exploitation. It is evocative and often touching. However I found myself going over many paragraphs more than once trying to understand which of the protagonists was telling her tale at any given point. Three stars because of this major flaw in the novel, but I would have given it 3.5 if I could because the writing is so assured and accomplished otherwise.
This is a character-focused book which deals with feelings and fears and Morrison's themes of slavery and sexual exploitation. It is evocative and often touching. However I found myself going over many paragraphs more than once trying to understand which of the protagonists was telling her tale at any given point. Three stars because of this major flaw in the novel, but I would have given it 3.5 if I could because the writing is so assured and accomplished otherwise.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found A Mercy a slightly confusing book. I read it as part of a book group and the funny thing about it is we all came out with the same questions and yet we all had different answers to them.
The book is written from the perspectives of most of the different characters. This takes a while to get used to as they all have different ways of talking - different dialects. The book also throws you in at the deep end putting it's most difficult to comprehend voice first talking about things you will only understand at the end. So don't give up at the first chapter.
The book is quite female focussed, it looks at the status of women as wives and servants in newly colonised America. It covers a multitude of themes including female identity, slavery, racism and religion. Sometimes it felt like the author could have been more focused on a couple of these rather than try to cover all of them in such a small book.
The book is written from the perspectives of most of the different characters. This takes a while to get used to as they all have different ways of talking - different dialects. The book also throws you in at the deep end putting it's most difficult to comprehend voice first talking about things you will only understand at the end. So don't give up at the first chapter.
The book is quite female focussed, it looks at the status of women as wives and servants in newly colonised America. It covers a multitude of themes including female identity, slavery, racism and religion. Sometimes it felt like the author could have been more focused on a couple of these rather than try to cover all of them in such a small book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Mercy: A snapshot view into the 17th century psyche
Short review:
A Mercy, first published in 2008, offers a snapshot view into the 17th century psyche, through the lesser-heard voices of the New World women of that time. Read more
A Mercy, first published in 2008, offers a snapshot view into the 17th century psyche, through the lesser-heard voices of the New World women of that time. Read more
Published 21 months ago by born_to_write
Morrison not at her Best
Reading Tony Morrison's novel, A Mercy, one gets a feeling that in this rather mediocre novel there is a very good one, if not great, trying to get out. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Herman Norford
A Mercy has to be read twice
A Mercy is the harrowing story of three slaves and their owners in the 1690s. This book left a bitter taste, as it shows man's inhumanity to man at its worst. Read more
Published on 21 April 2010 by Mrs. M. Osborne
Couldn't get into it
I really couldn't get into this book. I loved 'Beloved', but nothing interested me here - the characters weren't appealing or well-developed enough to make me care about them, and... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by Rachel
Very disappointing
I was looking forward to this book immensely, the subject matters being of interest to me.
However, from almost the first page, I found the writing style very difficult to... Read more
However, from almost the first page, I found the writing style very difficult to... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2009 by Mabel Stark
An emperor's new clothes
Does anyone truly understand this book? It seems like the Emperor's new clothes to me. People praising it because other critics have praised it, not because it is truly... Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2009 by TP Hermolle
A good idea..not perfectly carried through.
You can read good synopses of the plot from other reviewers, so I won't include on here.
I had to read this book twice before I got anything out of it. Read more
I had to read this book twice before I got anything out of it. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2009 by Lola465
Morrison at her best...
Like many people my attitude towards Morrison's work has often been ambivalent - a mix of admiration and apprehension. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by BlestMiss T
Wouldn't bother
This book had great potential and I was looking forward to reading it. However I really struggled with, well, everything. Read more
Published on 15 May 2009 by Campbell79
Immensely rewarding
Toni Morrison brings together a disparate group of people to give us a view of life in the American colonies in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2009 by Mick Read
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