Initial Impressions: The Heaven of Mercury, by Brad Watson, September 2019

[Libby]

Finished, but may take me a couple of days to distill my thoughts about this one.

[Florencia]

I feel that the book is beautifully written, but story wise it lacks a clear direction and I didn't manage so far to connect enough with any of the characters, to want to know how their story will end (I read 2/3 of the book).
If I approach the book from a different angle and abandon my expectations of having a more clear story and character development, I would say that this is a beautiful, poetic insight into people's memories. And memories are imperfect, sometimes random, don't necessary lead to anything of importance and can jump from one episode to another, from one period in life to the next. That's where I feel the book's value is.

[Diane, "Miss Scarlett"]

Florencia, that is a great perception. It may make the rest of the book completely different if I drop my expectations of the novel and read it as a collection of memories. Thank you.

[Candi]

Really good point, Florencia :)

[Sara]

Yes, excellent way to view this Florencia.

[Connie]

The book seems to look at the town during the 20th Century through the eyes of Finus mainly, but occasionally from the points of view of Birdie and Creasie. The story also looks at the relationship between Finus and Birdie through the years. Mercury is one of those towns where people stay for generations. Life is a succession of births and deaths with lots of emphasis on the obituaries and the funeral home. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and people tolerate quirky characters. Outside events hardly make a ripple, other than the war and the hurricane. The quality of writing was the draw for me.

[Cathrine ☯️]

I ended up coming away with feeling the book as a whole read like a group of Finus' obituaries.
BTW, has anyone ever read or seen obits like the ones he wrote? I've only seen the rather sterile ones common to newspapers out here in bigger cities. Is is more common to see more personal ones in small towns?

[Diane, "Miss Scarlett"]

My grandparents lived in Boone, NC all their lives. It was a small community, despite Appalachian University right in the middle of the town. I distinctly remember that every time we visited, I would get up on Sunday morning with the radio in the kitchen playing mournful organ music, and announcing the obituaries for the past week. They were very personal and much like Finus' efforts, and my grandparents knew everyone who was mentioned. This would have been late 50's, early 60's.

[Sara]

Even 20 years ago when we moved to the small town we are currently living in, there was a local newspaper that printed obits very like these and a column that said where locals were spending their vacations and who had come to visit them, etc. Small towns were definitely just as he has depicted them.

That newspaper is gone now, died when the editor died. It was a loss to this community and it went a long way toward destroying that sense that you were living where everyone knew everyone else.

[Nancy L Owens]

About obituaries on the RADIO: In a town with a WEEKLY newspaper it's a good idea to have the death notices (& info on when/where for the visitation and the funeral and the internment) on the radio at the same time every day so that people know when they can hear it.
Without this info being broadcast a person could be buried before one read about it in the newspaper.
What i do not remember are "obituaries" (more detail than a death notice) on the radio.

[Sara]

Quite right, Nancy. Again, I live in a small town and we do have obits on the radio still. However, they are simple notices of the death, which funeral home, and when services and visitations are scheduled. The kind of obits Finus does on the radio would be rare, I would think.

[Nell]

I started reading this book several years ago but didn't finish it. There's a bookmark at almost 3/4's in. Looks like I got bogged down in the middle, too.

Also stuck in the book is a short review that must have prompted me to buy the book:
"[O]ne of the finest novels in a decade... Watson is funny, melancholy, erotic, world-weary, romantic, gritty, and finally, profound."

I will re-read this month and see if I get all the way to the end this time.