A Mercy by Toni Morrison Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Mercy
Book Review: A short, lyrical , gripping novel, and a great joy to read
Summary: 5 Stars
In this short, lyrical and gripping novel, Tony Morrison has undertaken, once again, to explore her favorite subject: the evils of slavery. Written in prose so lovely and mesmerizing that it reminded me of her "Sula", also a short novel, published thirty-five years ago, "A Mercy" was a great joy to read.
Jacob Vaark, a Dutch-born farmer and trader, and Rebekka, his English wife own a tobacco plantation. Even though Jacob owned a few slaves, he did so only as a necessity to run his homestead. Jacob is sympathetic towards orphans and waifs because he himself was parentless at a young age, and had to fend for himself on the streets running small errands.
At the heart of the novel is an act of mercy. When Jacob Vaark travels to Maryland to collect debt from a tobacco plantaion owner named Senor D'Ortega, he finds out that Senor is broke and has no money to pay off the debt. Senor offers Jacob a thin black girl named Florens, a daughter of one of his slaves, as a partial payment of the debt. Florens is smart, and she can read and write also. Florens' mother senses that Jacob is more kind-hearted than her master, and so pleads with Senor to give Florens to Jacob. Her hope is that Florens would have a better life in Jacob's estate. Florens's mother considers this an act of mercy, but the irony is that Florence considers it abandonment.
Several sympathetic characters make the novel interesting and hold a reader's attention. Lina (Messalina), a native American, was sold to Jacob by the Presbytarians who had rescued and saved her. Sorrow, a sea captain's daughter, survives a ship wreck, but ends up in Jacob's plantation as a slave. Willard and Scully are indentured servants who are sent to work at Jacob's plantation by their contract holders. A young black man, a blacksmith, arrives to make an iron gate for Jacob's new house. He is not a slave, but a free man. This man is also knowledgeable about medicinal herbs. Florens falls in love with him.
In this novel Toni Morrison has found her ability to write simple, unadorned and lyrical prose that she mysteriously lost when she wrote "Paradise": "A frightened, long-necked child who did not speak for weeks but when she did, her light, singsong voice was lovely to hear. Some how, some way, the child assuaged the tiny yet eternal yearning for the home Lina once knew, where everyone had anything, and no one had everything."
Reading this novel was an intense, deeply moving, and satisfying experience. Even though the novel is short, it is bright, deep and weighty.
Book Review: Ambiguity
Summary: 3 Stars
Reading Toni Morrison's A Mercy slowly during Black History Month gave me plenty of time to absorb her lyrical language and reflect on her depiction of life in America in the late 17th century. A Mercy presents that time and place through multiple narrators and through the description of setting and feelings in a way that readers can come closer to understanding all the moral ambiguity of the era. One could be opposed to slavery and also participate in its practices. Individuals can yearn for a better life while despairing the present one. One can be subject to the mastery of another while fearing the absence of that master. The language becomes mesmerizing at times, and I found the best way to absorb the story was to relax and take it in, rather than try to over-analyze or think too hard about what was going on. Morrison and her work have been recognized and rewarded. A Mercy adds to her legacy.
Rating: Three-star (Recommended)
Book Review: An Amazingly Crafted Work
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is so well written and crafted the story is told in such a unique way from the points of view of several different characters. The rhythm of the story is a bit difficult to get into at first. I found I had to read it very slowly because there is little punctuation used and some of the characters do not use correct grammar, but once you allow them to speak in your head it is truly sensational. Enjoy this piece of literature and take your time reading it. Let the speech of the characters control the pace of the reading.Book Review: Another Morrison Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Toni Morrison writes yet another masterpiece! Lovers of Faulkner, Garcia Marquez, and Morrison's earlier work will not be disappointed by this latest endeavor. Her mastery of "stream of consciousness" and narrative dialogue is exceptionally executed and adds that stylistic content and metaphor that is the hallmark of a great author. The themes are timeless.
This is a must read! In my opinion, this is her best work since the incomparable "Beloved". It is befitting her stature as a Noble Laureate and is deserving of yet another Pulitzer.
Book Review: Another deep and engrossing Morrison Novel
Summary: 4 Stars
It's been a while since I've anticipated a book from an author as much as I have with Toni Morrison. I've enjoyed each and every book she has written. A Mercy, I must say, was a bit different than her other books on some levels, and on other levels it is the same writing that I have come to love from Morrison.
What is different is that she bases her novel in the seventeenth century wrapped around the historical context of a frontier setting in Virginia, the lives of women, both free, indentured and slaves, not to mention the background of commerce and trade within the New World. Morrison does wonderfully in capturing the historic aspect of the times and yet not lose the reader. A historic novel with a current feel to it. One of my favorite chapters was a section of Rebekka's and her comparison of old England with the New World.
What really stands out though is Morrison's writing, which is exemplary as usual. Her style of writing is a recursive style, which always lends to a more complete and complex novel. As the storyline progresses each subsequent chapter switches to a different character, whose past is recounted until it rejoins the current storyline to advance it forward until the next chapter, when it starts all over again. At first you begin to see complete pictures of each character, but not for the book, until slowly Morrison gives birth to a complexly interwoven novel that drips sophistication and depth.
Each character, from Rebekka to Sorrow to Lina to Florins, are full and real, with good qualities and bad. Morrison doesn't paint one character better or worse than any other, just real. Rebekka, the lowly born in England sent to the New World to be a wife; Lina the Native American reformed and brought into the light of the Europes; Sorrow the born and raised shipmate; and Florins the slave child. They form a motley collection of women, yet a complex and very alive and colorful novel.
The only reason not a 5 star review is because A Mercy is certainly not her best novel and I have read better from her, namely Paradise, and know that she can and does write better. A definite recommend, both the book and the author.
4 stars.