Book Review MERCURY

tlc tour host mercury-cover

THE BOOK

14695352_10157543203095104_3162429065240149192_n

Oh yes, I did read much of this out with the chickens while drinking a glass of wine!

• Hardcover: 336 pages

• Publisher: Harper (September 27, 2016)

Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past—arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes.

Mercury’s owner, Hilary, is a newcomer to town who has enrolled her daughter in riding lessons. When she brings Mercury to board at Windy Hill, everyone is struck by his beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she had harbored, and relinquished, as a young woman. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession.

Donald may have 20/20 vision but he is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed and how these changes threaten their quiet, secure world. By the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv’s ambitions and his own myopia.

At once a tense psychological drama and a taut emotional thriller exploring love, obsession, and the deceits that pull a family apart, Mercury is a riveting tour de force that showcases this “searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers” (Jennifer Egan).

Purchase Links
HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

THE AUTHOR

margot-livesey-ap-photo-by-tony-rinaldi

Margot Livesey is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, Banishing Verona, Eva Moves the Furniture,The Missing World, Criminals, and Homework. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Find out more about Margot at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

MY REVIEW

This book is (well) written in several sections. I opened it for the first time and had to close it with a SCREAM as the first section is entitled ‘DONALD’. Lucky for this book reviewer, TLC Book Tours was not asking me to review a book about THAT Donald! Whew!

I guess a book that starts out making me scream and ends up making me sob is a good one. Not to commit the spoiler crime – but there is a death scene that had me sobbing for a very personal reason – my mother is ill with Parkinson’s and her demise is very likely to be from the same cause and in the same manner as written so thoughtfully in Mercury. For that scene alone, I am very glad I read this book.

There are a lot of subplots, as previous reviewers have complained, but I find they were all woven together to create the intricate tapestry of the story. There are a number of characters but they are all developed just well enough to pique the interest and not to confuse the reader. My favorite character is the family African Grey parrot, who speaks in Donald’s father’s voice!

Love lost and found, family relationships, crime and punishment, trials and tribulations, poetry and HORSES! 336 riveting pages – not one too many or one too few – I rarely say this about a book! Ms. Livesey is a very talented author. I look forward to exploring her other books, of which there are fortunately a good number.

I read, read, read, but do not watch tv and very rarely spend precious reading time watching a movie, but I am moved to say that this story might make a good film – gasp – that is also something I rarely, if ever say!

ENJOY THE REST OF THE TOUR!

Tuesday, September 27th: Bibliophiliac

Wednesday, September 28th: The Reading Date

Thursday, September 29th: Real Life Reading

Friday, September 30th: Booksie’s Blog

Monday, October 3rd: Tina Says…

Wednesday, October 5th: Back Porchervations

Thursday, October 6th: Jathan & Heather

Monday, October 10th: I Brought a Book

Tuesday, October 11th: Bibliotica

Wednesday, October 12th: The Book Diva’s Reads

Thursday, October 13th: Art Books Coffee