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Jan 04, 2009

Jessica rated it:

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...

8 comments like (30 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

brian rated it:

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 guy who pre More...

26 comments like (41 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2009

D.E. rated it:

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

30 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2010

Jen rated it:

From my youngest sister, who reads often and prefers "Austenish" lit: "It was confusing and hard to get into and I didn't like the ending, but I did like that we heard every person's side of events. I still like my picks "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society" best."

From my middle sister, who is not a big reader and likes "family smut" (aka divorcee single mother who has had it hard and then finds love More...

22 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

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5 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Kristen rated it:

I love Toni Morrison, the way she holds out the dark truths of Americas past and forces the reader to look and while the themes here are the same as much of her other work this one is a bit more raw, not the writing which is beautiful as always, but here she just lays it all out in plain sight, here it is motherfuckers, And oh man does she really give it to Christianity good for its part in the oppression of women, slave trade, all around evilness, etc, so you know I was into that and I probably More...

14 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2008

Teresa rated it:

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...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 06, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Maybe it's the bitter taste Beloved left me with; Maybe it's that she comes off as the poor woman's Maya Angelou; Maybe it's just that no matter how many how much I want to like her writing, I just can't.

The first four chapters were confusing as hell and the remaining ones were disorienting. The POV's from chapter to chapter were so intertwined, I could barely remember who was talking and found myself constantly going back to the beginning of that particular chapter to double check. More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Edan rated it:

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...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Mike rated it:

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...

9 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Ksab rated it:

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???

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Edward rated it:

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2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Daniel rated it:

"A Mercy" is a book of glimpses into the lives of people who are connected by slavery and the demands of a farm that is located in an undeveloped region of Northern America circa 1680. In the first glimpse, a narrator speaks of regret and change and portents, of sickness and love and hurt. The language is odd and beautiful, combining long sentences that rush to their conclusion while stumbling over incorrect tenses and grammar that punctuate the prose like freckles on someone's skin. T More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2009

Marcy rated it:

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...

10 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2008

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

Allison rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2008

Karlan rated it:

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.

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2008

Yetunde rated it:

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.

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

Mohammed rated it:

This is my first novel of this author and i was impressed by how she created a different language, voice for the different point of view characters. They all sounded like real women, men in US before there was US. She presented slavery in different forms and in a subtle way. It was not melodramatic as books about slavery in America can be. As a story the novel didnt grow, end as you expect but it seemed like telling a traditional story was not important to the author.

I liked reading More...

11 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Adele rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2009

Laurel rated it:

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...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Will rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2008

Map rated it:

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 relig More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

Alexis rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 04, 2009

Jason rated it:

"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...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Johnny rated it:

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...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

kenny rated it:

i admit that i believe a bad morrison book is better than the best that most writers will ever get on paper. that being said, i found this slip of a book extraordinary. i don't know how her mind works, and i never will. i don't mind being confused at first, because i trust her enough to go with it, and am happy to follow along until i feel like i DO have some idea of what is going on, which is when i start over. i suppose the lack of linearity is a challenge that some find pretentious or simply More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Barbara rated it:

Oh, this book was so beautifully written!The chapters that alternate with the telling of the story are like poetry. Maybe it was that this week my husband went to a lecture on the underground railroad or maybe it was the inauguration of President Obama or the ghostly reminders of my growing up in era of the civil rights movement. This book smashed me in the heart.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2009

Fatty added it

where is the potency? where is the imagination that builds a substantial thing of a devastating emotion (the ghost of Beloved, the ball of fuzz in Sula, the blue eyes of Peccola and her strange, desolate inward voices)? what is the mercy? at first i thought of the saying 'lord'a'mercy' in which the 'a' is a contraction of 'have', which would make the title a plea, an exhortation, but now i doubt. now i wonder if the mercy is the writing, is the graffiti on the walls of an empty room in a never-i More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Hulananni rated it:

Read it in a single sitting....difficult (for me) first chapter...then I understood the vernacular and wanted to know the ending RIGHT AWAY!...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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