The Mercy Boys

by John Burnside

Four Scottish men meet every day in their local pub and drink themselves senseless, that is until their world falls apart when one of the men drifts off into a bizarre trap and another commits an act of mindless violence.

The second novel from an award-winning Scottish author.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Burnside was a Scottish writer. He was the author of nine collections of poetry and five works of fiction. Burnside achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000 for The Asylum Dance which was also shortlisted for the Forward and T.S. Eliot prizes. He left Scotland in 1965, returning to settle there in 1995. In the intervening period he worked as a factory hand, a labourer, a gardener and, for ten years, as a computer systems designer. Laterly, he lived in Fife with his wife and children and taught Creative Writing, Literature and Ecology courses at the University of St. Andrews.

[Author photo © Norman McBeath]

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls]

A poet’s novel about various Dundee alcoholics, malcontents and miserable men leading their miserable lives, written in excessively descriptive, somewhat flat prose. This is what rankles me about the Scottish novel—the sheer unflinching lugubriousness of the enterprise. This is why reading A.L. Kennedy or James Kelman or any other thistled luminary makes me break out in hives. Let’s be honest, Scots writing today sucks balls, except Ali Smith, the high priestess who will pull us from this depressing mire. Alan Bissett? Rodge Glass? Please! Give me a Uruguayan drunk writing isosyllabic iambs in crayon any day. John Burnside’s A Lie About My Father is really neat, howevs.

[Jean M · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole this book is beautifully written if you concentrate on the writing and put the subject matter to one side. The author is a poet and this is apparent in the flow of the words and the wonderful imagery. Unfortunately the subject matter is miserable; do not read this book if you need cheering up because, by the end of the book, you will be depressed.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing. It was sparse and philosophical.

[carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written book about 4 men who meet in the pub. Makes for traumatic reading. However I did finish it.
If you want a lighthearted read.
This isn’t the choice for you.
Burnside writes with eloquence about the darker side of alcoholism. The poor choices people make and the hardships of life and drink

[Eliz Manandhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Burnside really impressed me with his bizarre and original debut novel, The Dumb House, which cemented his status in my mind as one of the best writers around. I went around to read more books by him, which were all fine but nothing hit home as hard as The Dumb House.
The Mercy Boys is another of his books which is good, but nothing like The Dumb House in terms of creativity and shock value. Here, we have 4 friends who pass their time in bars, leering into their miserable, discontent lives. The discontent leads one of them to commit a heinous crime while another one falls into a trap.
John Burnside, in his flat prose, accounts for these flailing lives in monotonous candor and gloom. Sure, his poetic flat prose is enjoyable but the plot doesn't really thicken and the result is neither heavy nor exciting.
All in all, just fine.