A Mercy

by Toni Morrison

book data

2,057 ratings, 3.64 average rating, 695 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		20%
4		38%
3		27%
2		9%
1		3%

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published

November 11th 2008 by Knopf

binding

Hardcover, 167 pages

literary awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction shortlist, (2008)

isbn

0307264238 (isbn13: 9780307264237)

description

A powerful tragedy distilled into a small masterpiece by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two c...more

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12/28/08

Jessica rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Back in college I took a course on Colonial America because I had to. It was pretty tough for me to get into it at the time, since I never really gave a crap about that inaccessible and unglamorous period. I wish this book had been around in those days, because Morrison's efforts to describe that bizarre and confusing world might've helped me get better picture of the time, and therefore care more about what I was learning. To me, A Mercy really is incredible historical fiction that provides acc...more Back in college I took a course on Colonial America because I had to. It was pretty tough for me to get into it at the time, since I never really gave a crap about that inaccessible and unglamorous period. I wish this book had been around in those days, because Morrison's efforts to describe that bizarre and confusing world might've helped me get better picture of the time, and therefore care more about what I was learning. To me, A Mercy really is incredible historical fiction that provides access to a strange time and the people who lived in it. Morrison exposes the insides of her seventeenth-century characters in a way that made them sympathetic and comprehensible, though still remote and unfamiliar, even foreign. I didn't feel I could relate to these people at all, which for me was part of the point -- what do I have in common with someone living four hundred years ago? -- but also kept me feeling somewhat detached for the first two thirds of the novel. I enjoyed it, but I didn't really freak out about this book the way some other Booksters did until the last few chapters, which were totally fabulous and really did blow my mind.

Recently on here there was some friendly (I think) bickering about Howard Zinn's People's History of the US and the whole question of multiculturalism and revisionist history. Although it's fiction, A Mercy is an almost perfect example of how I like my American history served: organic, unflinching, and successfully synthesizing, rather than just reacting against previous histories. In A Mercy, Morrison tears away the veil of idealism and whitewashing to stare unflinchingly at the myth of America, then unapologetically celebrates that very myth (it seemed to me), and it's pretty extraordinary. There's one passage in here about a character leaving the cramped, violent filth of Europe for the fresh, clean, virginal Eden of the New World, and it just gave me chills. I mean, it's really spectacular! She writes about all this slavery and sexual violence and persecution and disease in a way that lets you imagine what it was like to live in that era, and somehow, paradoxically, it makes the classic American myths -- especially the myth of freedom -- seem true for the first time, in a new way.... if that makes any sense. Morrison captures the complexity and brutality of Colonial America, cataloguing the various ways there were to be unfree (slavery, indentured servitude, marriage, etc.) through a multiethnic cast of characters who she's able to write as both weighty symbols and deeply human individuals in a way only Toni Morrison -- and almost no one else -- is able to get away with. The chapters are written from the perspectives of the various characters, in this unbelievable Morrisonesque language that will make you freak out. Yeah, this book probably will make you freak out.... Plus, it's super short! It's also a really interesting perspective on the legacy of American slavery, that recontextualizes it in a much earlier, more northern setting than most treatments, and gets into some different questions and issues than a lot of us are probably used to. Also, did I mention this lady can write?

So yeah, in closing: I wasn't competely nuts about this, and especially at the beginning I had a couple weird moments where I almost felt like I was reading a trashy romance novel -- because of the subject matter, not the style -- but it was a good book, and I do recommend it.(less)

Like this review? yes (23 people liked it)

7 comments

12/27/08

brian rated it:

recommended to brian by: Ruth, Mike Reynolds

having never read toni morrison, i felt it could be a mistake to pick up her newest book, particular it being one so late in her career -- this can really be the kiss of death... i mean imagine judging bowie’s career after having only heard Tonight? or dylan’s after listening to Saved?

i resisted morrison for years -- saw her as kind of the literary equivalent of morgan freeman perpetually playing a variation of the ‘magical negro’… y’know, the wise, deep-voiced, saintly...more

Like this review? yes (23 people liked it)

21 comments

07/21/08

Elizabeth rated it:

Read in July, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

By the end of this novel I felt as though I had finished reading a collection of character sketches that could be used to form a much larger and perhaps more coherent text. Each chapter skips around from one character to another, and from first to third person narration, which in itself is not a problem, and if done well can make an interesting and eclectic whole. In this case, the text simply became frustrating; a puzzle that is frankly not interesting enough to put together.

The...more By the end of this novel I felt as though I had finished reading a collection of character sketches that could be used to form a much larger and perhaps more coherent text. Each chapter skips around from one character to another, and from first to third person narration, which in itself is not a problem, and if done well can make an interesting and eclectic whole. In this case, the text simply became frustrating; a puzzle that is frankly not interesting enough to put together.

The characters in this novel are diverse and could be very interesting if they were given the pages count they need. The characters consist of a Native American slave woman, a black slave woman who has a reputation of "madness," a young black slave girl whose sale to another man was urged on by her own mother, a pair of white atheists (who seem nice at first, but are really like all other whites, bad), a freed young blacksmith, and two indentured men. We learn bits and pieces about each of these people, but never enough to truly care about them. The small histories we are given whet the appetite for more details that are never delivered. After reading Beloved one gets spoiled by the closeness that we can have with characters like Sethe, Denver, and Paul D, but in A Mercy it felt that the characters were being held away from the reader, forcing them to be impersonal. Even in Paradise a novel filled with dozens of characters, the individuals at least seemed more alive than those in Morrison's new text.

Now for the Narrative. I simply do not know what to say as there is so little there. What is the point of the novel? Where do the characters end up? There is little development, and the heart of the story spans perhaps a few days with backlogs giving us a little information about how these people ended up where they are, but the sparse journey and the little history given do not add up to an interesting whole.
Sorrow gives birth to a baby-girl and finds wholeness within that event, but we don't know her. The white woman Rebekka turns violent and cruel, but her betrayal means little because we hardly get to know the good in her which her cruelty is supposed to contrast. And yes, the young woman who was urged to be sold off by her mother is able to pick her sexual partner as her mother intended, but that freedom is so curtailed by the failure of her relationship and the reader's lack of personal connection with her that it barely matters.

I wanted to love and adore this book as I do Beloved, but there is so little that the two books have in common. The utter intimacy that Morrison had to have developed with her characters in Beloved is not even attempted in this book. It is that distance that tears at my heart and makes me wonder if she will explore, and allow us readers to experience, that gut-wrenching sadness, anger, betrayal, again.

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Like this review? yes (9 people liked it)

3 comments

11/12/08

Teresa rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Yes, I am a Toni Morrison fan and believe she is incapable of writing a bad book, but that doesn't mean I wasn't ready to be critical of her new book if necessary. It's not necessary. The beginning may seem slow (that never bothers me) as we are thrust into a world that is faraway in time, but real. Historical details never bog down; they are worn lightly, as a reviewer put it.

Reviewers have compared one character here to Sethe from "Beloved;" and though I see the parallel...more

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

4 comments

01/29/09

Edan rated it:

(review of isbn 0701180455)

recommended to Edan by: Mike Reynolds, Brian Gottlieb
recommends it for: Julia Whicker-Schoolmeester

Okay, first thing's first: I clicked this cover because it's terrible and terrifying in its cheesiness and utter stupidity--it's almost offensive in how off base it is. Is this the British version or something? Yes, a girl in A Mercy does insist on wearing shoes at all times, and actually travels in her dead master's boots, but this aspect of the book is no way akin to a kid borrowing her mom's shoes to play pretend, as this cover suggests. This looks like Sasha Obama borrowing Michelle's heels...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

2 comments

12/14/08

Mike rated it:

Read in December, 2008

For now--4. [UPDATED to 5. I actually on a whim started rereading, and before I knew it was on about 50, and, yeah, it's amazing.)] This was amazing, and I kind of parcelled it out as a reward in small chunks each night, after drowning in the grading of papers.... It may climb to 5, but give me a few days to think about my reaction.

I will say, in brief: it is a great story, compulsively engaging the reader in terms of plot, untangling its interwoven narrators' stories. And each h...more

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

9 comments

11/02/08

Ksab rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Although the subject of "A Mercy" ie the interdependent lives of African slaves,Native Americans,indentured servants,free blacks,and whites in Catholic early Md.-this book was a bit disapppointing. It seemed as if Ms. Morrison wanted/had to crank out a book so did an "abbreviated" version of her usually phenomenal story-telling. the characters were 1/2 developed-almost but "no cigar" as was the story. Hey-Ms. Morrison has had an illustrious career-maybe next time???...more

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

5 comments

02/18/09

Gjinkerson rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

2 comments

01/13/09

Marcy rated it:

Read in February, 2009

There is no mercy when it comes to slavery, but there are mercies shown throughout the story, one by a mother who allowed her daughter to be sold to a white man she thought would to be kind to her daughter; She could not bear the thought of their own master having his way with her daughter, to break her daughter as she is coming of age like he did to her mother. Florens is taken across the ocean with her new master. Lina, another slave owned by Jacob, showed mercy in bringing up this child be...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

10 comments

11/29/08

Eric rated it:

This book definitely builds for me but its not like Toni's other books where you just can't put it down. Even though the subject matter was weighty, it was a quiet Toni Morrison, at least for me. For a book that's only 167 pages, the dilemma wasn't crucial at first because you have to move around with a few different characters in a short period of time. With that said, the execution of how this all comes together was very gratifying at the end. I never felt I was in bad hands, or that it wa...more

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11/22/08

Allison rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: Cindy Ross-Katz

NY Times is correct in comparing A Mercy to Morrison's previous renowned work, Beloved. Both deal with slave life: the backstories of slaves; the relationships between slaves and owners and mothers and daughters; the realities of being owned and being free in 17th century America. Like Beloved, A Mercy grapples with abandonment as its central theme.
However, A Mercy is a much more grounded novel than Beloved in that the reader is not guessing throughout the novel how much is real and how...more

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11/28/08

Karlan rated it:

bookshelves: adult

Read in November, 2008

This extraordinary short book is wonderfully written. The style changes from chapter to chapter as different characters narrate. Some puzzles are solved as one reads, but I wanted to reread the novel as soon as I finished it to better appreciate the intertwining elements. The tragedies of 17th century New England landowners, slaves, religious fanatics, servants in New England are told in a brutal yet poetic way.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

4 comments

11/13/08

Yetunde rated it:

Read in December, 2008

This was definitely not one of my favorites. I am usually a die-hard Morrison fan, but this one just wasn't up to par with her earlier works. Many people have compared this to Beloved, but I find that comparison unjust. This book, while it had its moments of brilliance, was inundated with dense, incomprehensible prose. At times, I was unable to decipher who was speaking and when. It just wasn't a good read for me.

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03/24/09

Adele rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Maybe I'm just not a Toni Morrison fan. Even though I want to be. This is only the second book of hers I've read, the first being Song of Soloman in high school. I mean, no question, the lady can write. Certain passages are just beautifully rendered.

A Mercy is told from several different points of view in pre-revolution colonial America. (It's the seventeenth century, and around Maryland, I think. Early enough that the Portuguese are still big shots in the area.) We begin wi...more

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02/21/09

Laurel rated it:

(review of isbn 0739332546)

bookshelves: fiction, historical-fiction

Read in April, 2009

I really hate to only give 2 stars to a Toni Morrison book. My main problem with A Mercy (the audio version) was with the narration. Morrison chose to read the book herself, and I'm not sure how well it worked. She reads so slowly and pauses in the middle of sentences so often, it started to feel like an attempted poetry reading. For example, "Far away to the right (pause), beyond the iron fencings (pause), enclosing the property (pause) and softened by mist (pause), he saw Rosa Cortez,...more

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01/01/09

Will rated it:

Read in December, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This is a devastating look not only at the slave experience in the 17th century, but of various forms of bondage and of the place of women in that world. While skin color may have defined one sort of servitude, gender and class define others. Yet there are some ways to find some space between the bars, some time outside.

Set in the late 17th century, this is an ensemble story. Florens is a young, spirited slave girl. She speaks in the first person giving us a look from inside her ski...more This is a devastating look not only at the slave experience in the 17th century, but of various forms of bondage and of the place of women in that world. While skin color may have defined one sort of servitude, gender and class define others. Yet there are some ways to find some space between the bars, some time outside.

Set in the late 17th century, this is an ensemble story. Florens is a young, spirited slave girl. She speaks in the first person giving us a look from inside her skin. Except for one chapter by Florens’ mother, the rest of the book is third person. We see Florens’ experience with owners, families and yearnings old and new. Jakob is a kindly merchant/farmer, eager to help the unfortunate, always recalling his own humble, even desperate childhood. Rebekka is outwardly a free white woman, but truly was sold by her parents to be Jakob’s wife no less than any black slave. Lina is the eldest of three helper women on Jakob’s farm, a mother and friend to Rebekka. She is a Native American, a survivor of a small pox outbreak and the subsequent torching of her village. Sorrow is a black-toothed, somewhat addled woman who washed up on shore after a shipwreck. She holds conversations with an imaginary twin. Morrison also shows us two indentured servants. Despite having fixed terms to their indenture, their bosses find or concoct excuses to prolong their indebtedness and thus their servitude endlessly. (p 57 – the original seven years stretched to twenty-some, he said, and he had long ago forgotten most of the mischief that kept extending his bondage.) One cannot but think of today’s extension of tours of duty in the military.

Religion comes in for a beating here. (p 74 - Religion, as Rebekka experienced if from her mother, was a flame fueled by a wondrous hatred.) In one scene Florens is suspected by a bizarre woman of being a witch and is forced to strip so she can be checked to see if she has a tail. Later, she attaches herself to a free black man in another form of devotion, only to have that work out badly. Lina had been taken in by a group of fundamentalists, who, unkindly, named her Messalina, seeing her as cursed by God. A curate is guilty of buggering a young boy.

The 17th century is a cruel, harsh world (p75 – …it was clear in her household that execution was a festivity as exciting as a king’s parade. Brawls, knifings and kidnaps were so common in the city if her birth that the warnings of slaughter in a new, unseen world were like threats of bad weather) both in the old world and the new. Jakob offers a relatively safe place, a fenced-in peaceful community where orphans collect.

But with all the horror of the world, we still define for ourselves who we are, maybe by paring crusted misery from our memory, maybe from holding some part of our true self separate from the harsh world. (p 50 - Solitude, regret and fury would have broken her had she not erased those six years preceding the death of the world. The company of other children, industrious mothers in beautiful jewelry, the majestic plan of life: when to vacate, to harvest, to burn, to hunt; ceremonies of death, birth and worship. She stored and sorted what she dared to recall and eliminated the rest, an activity that shaped her inside and out. By the time Mistress came, her self-invention was almost perfected. Soon it was irresistible.)

While maybe not the masterpiece that Beloved was, A Mercy is a very dense novel, a torte of a work, covering a range of subjects rich in significance in language that is moving and penetrating.
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12/22/08

Map rated it:

Read in December, 2008

What a sad, sad book, about the evils of slavery, religion, money. While it is written about an America of four centuries ago, A Mercy<i/> has resonance in these days of economic uncertainty, fundamentalism, and the false belief in unfettered "capitalism." As the author illuminates the terrible bonds between religion and slavery—of seeing others, whether native Americans, Africans, or poor whites as non humans worth less than livestock—I couldn't help but be reminded of the r...more

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12/22/08

Alexis rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I was so psyched to read this, like many a Morrison fan I am sure. I was a little disappointed by how short it was. I didn't know how she could possibly flesh out her characters well enough in 170-odd pages. And sure enough, they all remained a little sketchy.
I really love that she took on this interesting moment in the history of America, the early colonial settlers period. She gave herself the opportunity to write about African slaves, Brazilian slaves, indentured servants, Native Americ...more

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11/11/08

Jason rated it:

Read in March, 2009

"poison is like the drowned, it always floats"...
consider this phrase from the novel and you will capture the primary emphasis of this book...

what i mean by this is captured in the figures of jacob and florens...figures which represent the full spectrum of the slave relationship...
with jacob, the slave owner, morrison depicts the notion that one cannot just sip lightly from a poisoned cup and avoid being poisoned...likewise one cannot merely dip one's toe into a...more

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12/08/08

Johnny rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I'm sorry to Morrison and all her fans (and I am one), but I did not like this book! Admittedly, it had one strike against it in my view because of the setting; I hate anything set in excessively dirty times. I know that is totally something to explore in therapy, but it's the reason I don't like westerns and it's the reason I started out not liking this book, which is set in the seventeenth century. But beyond that, it just all seemed so heavy handed in it's attempts to be "literary."...more

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"Reverend Father is the only kind man I ever see. When I arrive here I believe it is the place he warns against. The freezing in hell that comes before the everlasting fire where sinners bubble and singe forever. But the ice comes first, he says. And when I see knives of it hanging from the houses and trees and feel the white air burn my face I am certain the fire is coming." More quotes...