A mercy

a novel

by Toni Morrison

167 pages

English language

Published July 15, 2008 by Knopf.

ISBN:: 978-0-307-26423-7

(7 reviews)

A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize--winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.From the Hardcover edition.

13 editions

Erin reviewed A mercy by Toni Morrison

Review of 'A mercy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I liked the structure of this with the alternation between Florens and all the other characters. Florens had the most unique narrative voice, the most literary voice, so I was glad it wasn't constantly like that. Morrison has the ability to use all kinds of narration and shows that here.

For much of the book I was surprised at how standard the story felt. It does get weirder toward the end, which I appreciated. I wouldn't say it enters magical realism territory like Beloved does, but it touches on some strange beliefs and happenings. It also gets dark in a way that I wasn't expecting.

I appreciated how much Morrison did with each voice she created. Each character felt like a full person with a past impacting their present. Morrison is a remarkably compassionate woman. I listened to a snippet of an interview with her at the end of the audiobook (I read just the last chapter on audiobook because I had to go to work and wanted to finish), and she describes all of these characters as products of their environments and choices made around them. That they aren't really to blame for their choices or views. That was an interesting take from the author herself.

Honestly, I read this too fast to appreciate it as much as I could have!

Favorite quote:
But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life.

Kathrin Passig reviewed A mercy by Toni Morrison

Review of 'A mercy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ich mag verwirrende und zeitlich verwickelte multiple Erzählstimmen sowieso, aber hier hat mir besonders gefallen, dass es keine klare Auflösung von irgendwas gibt. Es sieht erst mal so aus, als müsste die Geschichte auf irgendwas zusteuern, Konflikte, Auflösungen, ein Ende, aber tatsächlich bekommen wir nur so eine Art Momentaufnahme gezeigt.

Eric Lawton reviewed A mercy by Toni Morrison

Review of 'A mercy' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I can't say I liked this book because it is told in first person with a lot from the point of view of an enslaved woman and the rest showing other viewpoints, none of which should leave you feeling good about anything.

But very well told.

AliCorbin reviewed A mercy by Toni Morrison

Review of 'A mercy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A conflation of people - white, black and Indian, free, slave and indentured, English, Dutch, Portuguese, African and American, male and female - thrown together in late 17th century rural New York. Mostly it dealt with the women of this group, each one's backstory, how they came to join the household and built a community with each other, and then how it all fell apart.