- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (28 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140265155
- ISBN-13: 978-0140265156
- Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 13.6 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,752,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
In deep winter, early February 1887, two brothers, John and Lafayette Lodi, flee Kentucky in the middle of the night, heading west toward Indian Territory. The men carry their families with them in covered wagons, and - hidden between them - a corrosive rivalry born of the inescapable bond of blood. John, tortoise-stubborn, is a master gunsmith; Fayette is jealous, grasping, a mule thief and bootlegger. Between the brothers, an ancient tragedy threatens to play itself out. Thus opens "The Mercy Seat," an unblinking, keen-eyed vision of the settling of the American West, told first by Mattie, the ten-year-old daughter of John Lodi, and echoed in the voices of the white townspeople who migrate into the Indian lands. Set in the harsh and beautiful Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, the novel follows Matt as she struggles to hold her disintegrating family together with a mix of spite, loyalty, and fierce will. When Mattie is struck down by fever, a Choctaw healer brought in to pull the girl back from the territory of the dead recognizes in her a powerful gift of visions. But Matt turns away even from this imperative call in her desperation to restore her family to their home back East. As the bitter conflict mounts between John and Fayette, so does the war between her visions and her will - and in the final, unavoidable clash, Matt will hold both mercy and destruction in her hands.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
I understand this is a first time novel, and it was a good try, but this story could have been told in 250 pages, not 400. It would have been better if she spent more time in telling the story of the people, and less time describing every detail of the surroundings. The book drug on too long, too much of a good thing. I would have liked to see the character of Thula developed, and known more about what Matt thought, not just about what she did. I would not recommend this book, unless you have nothing else to read.
Format:Hardcover
This story of a family's trip to and their life in "Eye-tee," Indian Country, Oklahoma, has the potential to be a masterpiece. The biblical allusions are a nice touch, but weren't used very masterfully. Perhaps Rilla should have saved this powerful story for another day and time when she was a better versed author.
Format:Hardcover
Rilla Askew's fascinating novel succeeds on several levels. She tells a good story -- one that made this reader want to keep turning pages long after bedtime -- and she accurately portrays a way of life and a multi-layered society that has been ignored by most American writers. However, most impressively, she mixes biblical truths, wisdom of the ages, passion, and the creative imperative, to create a morality tale that is all her own. Askew has been compared to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, but she is unique: Like them, her talent is undeniable, and like them, she writes about forgotten groups of people, but her voice and the rhythms of her language are incomparable. Her writing is informed by the King James Bible, but the beauty and power of "The Mercy Seat" are strong enough to stand on their own merits, without comparison.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing -- but not bad -- first novel
Rilla Askew's first novel The Mercy Seat contains some marvelous writing, but is ultimately an uneven effort. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 1998
Incredible story and especially well-told
This book is well worth your time and in fact will take you out of time and not let you back until you have finished the story. A well wrought novel that ranks with the best.
Published on 1 Feb 1998
Gut Wrenching story of 10 yr. old Mattie's trip to Eye Tee.
This novel grabs you from the very first page and doesn't let go until the end. Leaves you wondering how a 10 year old girl can survive such a trip in a covered wagon to a new... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 1998
This book is not merely a good read. It is an experience.
This is not an attempt at a review, it is comment. Being a native Oklahoman and a kind of shirt-tail historian, I have nibbled forever at the edges of that formative time in the... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 1998
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