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86th out of 978 books
—
1,053 voters
The Mercy of Thin Air
by
Ronlyn Domingue (Goodreads Author)
New Orleans, 1920s. Raziela Nolan is in the throes of a magnificent love affair when she dies in a tragic accident. In an instant, she leaves behind her one true love and her dream of becoming a doctor -- but somehow, she still remains. Immediately after her death, Razi chooses to stay between -- a realm that exists after life and before whatever lies beyond it.
From this r...more
From this r...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
June 20th 2006
by Washington Square Press
(first published January 1st 2005)
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I didn't expect to like this book nearly as much as I did. I love the portrayal of college girls in the 1920s, the very Southern flavor to the speech and behavior of the characters and the twists and turns in the story. If I find myself slowing down and hoping to catch a few red lights to I can hear a little more, you know that's a recommendation.
Razi, the narrator and protagonist of The Mercy of Thin Air, is dead. The story moves back and forth between memories of her life before she drowns in the late 1920s and her observations on the present, over seventy five years later, where she lives "between" life and death. In common parlance, Razi is a ghost--she has no physical form, but she can see, hear, and smell everything around her in the living world, as well as moving objects and herself telekinetically.
At the beginning of the novel,...more
At the beginning of the novel,...more
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I haven't even finished this book yet and it's already one of my all-time favorites (and that's quite a bold statement for me if you know how much I read). The language in this book is some of the most beautiful I have ever read, next to Gabriel Garcia Marquez - it is lyrical and somehow sparkles on the page. It's simply gorgeous. Now, I have an Advanced Readers Copy, which I picked up at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville two years ago, so I'm not entirely sure it is exactly the same a...more
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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6 likes · like · see review
Raziela Nolan dies at a very young age and is caught between. She can not 'follow' her loved ones, instead she watches Amy and Scott. Amy has bought a bookcase that once belonged to Raz's boyfriend. The story interweaves the stories of Amy and Scott with Raz's own story.
Raz is in her senior year at Tulane in the 1920's when she dies. She has been brought up in a very forthright manner. Her mother was a suffragette. She is involved in supplying birth control to women(an illegal activity). Raz hop...more
Raz is in her senior year at Tulane in the 1920's when she dies. She has been brought up in a very forthright manner. Her mother was a suffragette. She is involved in supplying birth control to women(an illegal activity). Raz hop...more
3 likes · like · see review
For me, this book was just ok. When I read the back, I was really intrigued. A book written from a ghost's point of view, yadda yadda. Sounds good to me.
Eh. The writing was only so-so, kind of shallow and the dialogue was pretty bad. People don't really talk like that. I also didn't like the author's idea of ghosts. To me, the 'rules' and the little 'quirky' things about the spirit world just sort of annoyed me.
What I did like was the story of Scott & Amy, the modern couple sided up with th...more
Eh. The writing was only so-so, kind of shallow and the dialogue was pretty bad. People don't really talk like that. I also didn't like the author's idea of ghosts. To me, the 'rules' and the little 'quirky' things about the spirit world just sort of annoyed me.
What I did like was the story of Scott & Amy, the modern couple sided up with th...more
Dec 27, 2008
Ciara
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
family planning advocates, big fans of the ghost narrator genre, fans of sassy 1920s broads
this novel is set in the 1920s. the protaganist is a young women who is pretty feisty for the historical time period in which she resides. she is very invested in women having access to birth control & birth control information, which was illegal at the time. even married women had a hard time getting their hands on birth control information. the narrator is from a wealthy family is new orleans & has a boyfriend who is also from a wealthy family. they have been knockin' boots & havin...more
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Although I really enjoyed this book and absolutely fell in love the characters from the 20’s, especially Razi, and I did enjoy the story overall, I was a little annoyed with the book at times. Yes, I agree with all points made regarding reproductive health and education but I guess that I am just not a person who lives and breaths my beliefs and political stance. It was an interesting portion of the story and in most parts I found it to be important to character development and understanding the...more
This was one of the best books I've read in a while..its a beautiful story; its different and interesting, and its incredibly well written. This is Domingue's debut novel, and its obvious she has a huge career ahead of her as a novelist.
On the back jacket of the book, it is compared to Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," Aside from the fact that the main character is indeed dead, I didn't find any other similarites. I guess one could compare the two in a very general sense, but I was bored sensel...more
On the back jacket of the book, it is compared to Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," Aside from the fact that the main character is indeed dead, I didn't find any other similarites. I guess one could compare the two in a very general sense, but I was bored sensel...more
I borrowed this book from my friend Sandra, and am glad I did. The main character, Raziela Nolan, has a passionate love affair with Andrew O'Connell in the late 1920s. Beautiful, intelligent, and determined to go to medical school during a time when women were expected to just be wives and mothers, Raziela has her entire life ahead of her. On the cusp of telling Andrew she intends to marry him, Razi dies in an accident. She spends the next 70 years "in between," roaming the earth as a ghostly pr...more
This book puts my own skill in imagery to rest. I perfectly could envision every scene, but only after I’ve read it a million times. This is not to mean that it was poorly written, but beautifully written in another language. The scenes were hidden in metaphors and disguised in words. “The water sips me into the deep where I twirl against its pull. ”
I also loved it being staged in parts in the 20s, and then bouncing back to the 90s. The choice of words in the times changes and shows how far we’...more
I also loved it being staged in parts in the 20s, and then bouncing back to the 90s. The choice of words in the times changes and shows how far we’...more
Most of this book I didn't like. I found it convulted, hard to follow and over-written. However, towards the end when all the pieces start coming together, I liked it better. This is the story of a woman who tragically dies and then is caught in the "in between" world. She can't stop obsessing what happened to her love and ends up "haunting" a young couple who eventually bring her the answers she needs.
The concept is great and the perspective is unique yet I found that I never bonded with the...more
The concept is great and the perspective is unique yet I found that I never bonded with the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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“Can’t Let Go”
This book , The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue, was selected by one of the readers in our book group and was a refreshing change of pace from the last few books I’ve read. It’s one of those books that you want to reread (or at least skim) once you finish for two reason: first, there is a significant twist at the very end that holds a lot of meaning and second, each character is really interesting—you want to know them better and the novel holds many details that you may not c...more
This book , The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue, was selected by one of the readers in our book group and was a refreshing change of pace from the last few books I’ve read. It’s one of those books that you want to reread (or at least skim) once you finish for two reason: first, there is a significant twist at the very end that holds a lot of meaning and second, each character is really interesting—you want to know them better and the novel holds many details that you may not c...more
This was one of the best books I've read in a while..its a beautiful story; its different and interesting, and its incredibly well written. This is Domingue's debut novel, and its obvious she has a huge career ahead of her as a novelist.
On the back jacket of the book, it is compared to Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," Aside from the fact that the main character is indeed dead, I didn't find any other similarites. I guess one could compare the two in a very general sense, but I was bored sensel...more
On the back jacket of the book, it is compared to Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," Aside from the fact that the main character is indeed dead, I didn't find any other similarites. I guess one could compare the two in a very general sense, but I was bored sensel...more
Mamma mia quanto ho cercato questo libro! C'è stato un periodo in cui non mi davo pace perché non riuscivo a ricordarne il titolo, un altro in cui lo cercavo in libreria ma non c'era e poi, san aNobii e venuto in mio soccorso ed ho trovato un utente che lo aveva messo in scambio.
Avevo gli occhi che scintillavano quando è arrivato, ma nel momento in cui ho iniziato a leggerlo qualcosa della magia dell'attesa si è spezzato e così l'ho relegato nella libreria, su uno scaffale visibile ma non troppo...more
Avevo gli occhi che scintillavano quando è arrivato, ma nel momento in cui ho iniziato a leggerlo qualcosa della magia dell'attesa si è spezzato e così l'ho relegato nella libreria, su uno scaffale visibile ma non troppo...more
An exquisite love story that doesn’t promise a happy ending and spans generations, this book tells the story of Razi who dies and stays in-between instead of moving on to whatever’s next. Switching between the 20s and the 90s, the author weaves a story that unfolds slowly to reveal all the surprising ways in which Razi, the man she loved, and the couple she now haunts (for want of a better word) are connected as well as how she and the people she leaves behind cope with her death, if at all. The...more
Part mystery, part love story, part ghost story, part history lesson: The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue offers something for every reader. Narrated by the spirit of Razi, who has been in the “in between” more than 70 years, the reader is drawn into both the story of Razi herself and the young couple with which she is currently sharing a house. At its core this novel examines the choices women have been faced with for decades, as well as the unknowable question of what happens to us after...more
Just finished.... I am crying... It was so beautiful... So heartbreaking .... So deep....
It has been a while I have liked a book as much as I have liked this one... While trying to decide if I want to read Fifty Shades Of Gray (I will most likely not) and trying to make up my mind if I even like love stories at all after reading this book I have realized my problems are not with love stories, but with cheap and trashy love stories. There are so many of them that sometimes I feel like they even w...more
It has been a while I have liked a book as much as I have liked this one... While trying to decide if I want to read Fifty Shades Of Gray (I will most likely not) and trying to make up my mind if I even like love stories at all after reading this book I have realized my problems are not with love stories, but with cheap and trashy love stories. There are so many of them that sometimes I feel like they even w...more
I adored this book. It shouldn't take me five days to read a book that's just about 300 pages long, but that's exactly what happened. I found myself finding other things to do instead of reading because I wanted to prolong the joy of reading it. I slowed down and savored each word, each sentence. I just didn't want it to end.
But all good things must come to an end, and last night I finished it. And I mourned, just a little bit.
Razi is a feisty, unconventional girl of the 1920s. Her goal in life...more
But all good things must come to an end, and last night I finished it. And I mourned, just a little bit.
Razi is a feisty, unconventional girl of the 1920s. Her goal in life...more
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This was an equisite and beautiful book to read. Rebecca Gayheart portrayed the characters in such a way that I believed I was actually listening to Razi speak....that she was a real person. The romance in this book was perfect........there was just a touch of sex with much passion and love and tenderness that caused me to feel anticipation for the next time the lovers in the book would meet. It was a ghost story but in a fashion that was not scary but more that it needed to be told this way...w...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The Mercy of Thin Air is set within the past, present, and between. It's the story of Raziela Nolan, who dies before experiencing most of life. Razi reflects on growing in the 1920s as a woman determined to become a doctor and becomes a fierce advocate for women’s emancipation and reproductive rights. As Razi reminisces, she spies on the unstable relationship of Amy and Scott, a young couple whose home she currently haunts.
Razi’s voice was the driving point of this story. I loved her strength an
...more
One of the best, most unique books I've read in a long time. I have never read anything like it. Part Ghost Whisperer, part Dr. Ruth *yes, Dr. Ruth*, and part romance novel.
A spirited, liberal, strong woman in a time when women were looked down upon for being so, Razi dies suddenly in a tragic accident. Her life, her love affair...all unsettled. Her body gone, in the physical sense, she finds herself stuck "between". From here, she narrates the novel. While guiding newly dead betweeners through...more
A spirited, liberal, strong woman in a time when women were looked down upon for being so, Razi dies suddenly in a tragic accident. Her life, her love affair...all unsettled. Her body gone, in the physical sense, she finds herself stuck "between". From here, she narrates the novel. While guiding newly dead betweeners through...more
This is one of those rare, emotional novels that will capture your heart and imagination if you allow it to, and in the least it'll definitely entertain you. The story of a college girl, Raziela, who's life is cut short after a tragic accent. Her death causes chaos among those she leaves behind, most noteably her lover, Andrew. This isn't your usual ghost story of general haunting, it's more than that. The story, always narrated by Razi, bounces from her life, her spirit-life with others like he...more
I had a very hard time keeping track of the characters, locations and time. This is Domingue's first novel, so I think an editor should have done more to alert the readers to time changes. The problem wasn't just past and present, I thought at the beginning the main characters were in high school because they were applying for college--then later it said they *were* in college and applying for law/medical school. All the characters have very odd names, and I couldn't keep track of who was a frie...more
Dominque's prose was delicious...and I actually found it easy to embrace her theory of what happens post-death. My complaints were that it was really hard to follow the constant switching back and forth between time periods...and keep all the characters' names straight. I actually missed an "a ha!" moment because I was thinking it was about something else. I'm usually pretty savvy with stuff like that too. Also, for some odd reason, I didn't look forward to reading the book every night, so it to...more
I finally finished this. Was very anxious to start this book...but once I got going, had a really hard time getting into it. This book jumped around too much for me. I had to hesitate at the beginning of each chapter and think, "OK, are we in the past or present?" It lost me so much that I had to go back & re-read the ending, just to try & figure out what happened.
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New Orleans in the 1920s--that's all it took for me to decide to read this. I never read past the first line of a book description because I don't want to know too much.
This is a parallel/mirror story of Raziela (what kind of name is that and how do you pronounce it anyway? Rah-zee-la or Rah-zee-ella?) and Amy. One in 1929 dies and grieves for the love she left behind and the other in the present day is alive and grieves for the love who left her behind. It's a wispy, romantic, sentimental stor...more
This is a parallel/mirror story of Raziela (what kind of name is that and how do you pronounce it anyway? Rah-zee-la or Rah-zee-ella?) and Amy. One in 1929 dies and grieves for the love she left behind and the other in the present day is alive and grieves for the love who left her behind. It's a wispy, romantic, sentimental stor...more
This was one of the best novels I've read in a while - it got me out of a major reading slump :) The book is told from the perspective of a young woman named Raziela Nolan who died tragically in the 1920s in New Orleans; she has been living as a kind of ghost for the last 80+ years on earth. Razi was a forward-thinking feminist in her day, illegally distributing birth control information and planning her career as a doctor - but she also fell deeply in love with a man named Andrew, and her ghost...more
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Ronlyn Domingue is the author of The Mapmaker's War (Atria Books, 2013). Its sequel, The Chronicle of Secret Riven, is forthcoming in 2014. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was published in ten languages. Her writing has appeared in The Beautiful Anthology (TNB Books), New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Delta Review, The Independent (UK) , and Shambhala...more
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“why, it beats so i can love you.”
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“It was the kind of love you have for someone because you'll die inside if you don't love something.”
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