By juxtaposing the ideas of abandonment versus love, new life versus death, Toni Morrison takes any stereotype that surrounds slave narrative and throws it out the window, instead delving into the personal side of slavery; even traditional narrative style is denied in favor of rapidly changing narrators. In effect, her most recent novel A Mercy pushes the reader to places he or she may not have been before and forcing him or her to reconsider preconceived notions of gender and what is considered merciful.
With a rotating narrator, A Mercy illustrates how an individual's experience shapes the story of the whole. The reader follows the Vaants, a family unified by abandonment. With each new chapter, a different voice tells a different part of the story. With this method, Morrison allows the reader to connect with each character on a more fundamental level, learning what makes each individual different and damaged. When together, the characters work to heal one another, finding, in most cases, the companionship necessary to begin healing in their new family.
The patriarch and slave owner, Jacob, trades goods across the north and rum across the ocean. The title of the novel comes from his accepting of a slavegirl, Florens, as partial payment of a debt. Though Vaant sees the act as merciful, Florens can only see her mother's abandonment.
As the story progresses, we are introduced to a multitude of characters, including a cast of unique females: Rebekka, Vaant's mail-order bride who has lost every child she birthed, Lina, the sole survivor of a Native American tribe purchased by Vaant to keep Rebekka company, and Sorrow, the daughter of a sea captain and the only survivor after the ship sinks. While Rebekka, Lina and Florens form a group of their own, Sorrow is ostracized for her daftness and bad luck that Lina believes she carries, and yet she finds happiness when alone with her invisible friend, Twin. The modern reader would be able to recognize many of Sorrow's traits as symptoms of schizophrenia. A unifying quality among the women is an ability to love: Florens is consumed with desire for a freed slave working as a blacksmith, Rebekka loves her new home, husband and friend she finds in Lina, Lina ultimately adopts Florens as her own daughter and tries to protect her from the dangers she will face in the world and her travels, and Sorrow loves Twin at first, and finally her daughter.
In less than 200 pages, the reader sees each individual struggle with challenges they face. First, Jacob falls into the glitzy trap set by selling rum - he starts out wanting to provide for his family, but becomes addicted to lavishness, building multiple houses on his property that he will never need and has no heir to inherit. While Jacob cannot accept not having an heir, Rebekka grieves for the losses of each of her four children. After losing her husband to small pox and coming close to death herself, Rebekka eventually withdraws into herself and becomes devastatingly jealous of Sorrow and her infant. Florens is sent to find the blacksmith, who holds the cure to Rebekka's illness and the key to Florens' heart. After finding herself with blood on her hands, Florens must find a way to live with her guilt. In Florens' absence, Sorrow struggles with the many farm chores, her progressing pregnancy and ostracization within the Vaant family. With one worker gone and one unable to work due to her pregnancy, Lina struggles to keep the farm in working order while trying to keep Rebekka alive. Together, the women all face the multitude of challenges and hardships that life provides.
At first a challenging read while adapting to each narrator's voice (especially Florens' vernacular, stream-of-consciousness tongue), Morrison's unique writing style will keep the reader interested and provides a multi-faceted look at each situation. Furthermore, the rotating narrator (and lack of clues in chapter titles) forces the reader to get involved in order to identify with each character more, allowing him or her to feel what the character feels, be it a lover's emotion after feeling rejected, a mother's anguish of losing a child, or a woman's joy of finding her place and finally feeling Complete.
Beautifully written with lyrical descriptions and vivid imagery, A Mercy is a novel that you will not want to put down - not a word or phrase is wasted in the 196 pages of text. Fast-paced and never dull, it provides a fresh take on an old topic, illustrating the turmoil while remaining an enjoyable read. Though I would have preferred more closure in Florens' story, I would have to put this novel in the top ten percent of my all-time favorite reads. It is works like this one that prove Toni Morrison worthy of her Nobel Prize, showing her ability to write a beautiful story in such a short amount of space.
A Mercy
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 1,343 ratings
Price: 1.99
Last update: 07-22-2024
About this item
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In “one of Morrison’s most haunting works” (The New York Times),the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter—a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark 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, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark 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, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
Top reviews from the United States
Kim Bylen5.0 out of 5 stars
Love, Loss, and a Whole Lot More
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2009Libra5.0 out of 5 stars
Once Might Not Be Enough
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2008
I will not repeat the plot of this novel or describe the characters in detail because many of the other reviews do this. Rather, I would like to point out other aspects of the book. For me, a problem with A Mercy is that the beginning, told in Florens's voice, might confuse rather than engage the reader. Florens, a young black slave girl, speaks in first person, but in a sort of elliptical dialect, and the reader is left to discover that her words are actually addressed to her lover. Moreover, she relates events for which the reader has no frame of reference. Thrown off balance, I retuned to this section several times, seeking to relate it in the text. This initial section is about seven pages long and is followed by Jacob Vaarek's narrative, which takes place in 1682 Maryland, a setting probably unfamiliar to many readers. It took about two sections before my frustration eased, but after that I was intrigued by the work.
The story is not unified by the voice of an omniscient narrator. Instead, it is told in sections from the viewpoins of all its major characters, but only Florens speaks in first person, and every other section is told in her voice. The language is quite simple and beautiful, the form almost poetic, and the story minimized to bare bones. There are many incidents that the narrative will hint at but not fully describe. For instance, there are few actual narrative details of the dramatic and central scene that takes place between Florens and her lover. Yet, the book is certainly wonderful. It does deal with servitude, but I came away with the understanding that slavery is not limited to people owning other people but includes emotional, cultural, and religious bondage. This is almost a book that needs to be read more than once.
The story is not unified by the voice of an omniscient narrator. Instead, it is told in sections from the viewpoins of all its major characters, but only Florens speaks in first person, and every other section is told in her voice. The language is quite simple and beautiful, the form almost poetic, and the story minimized to bare bones. There are many incidents that the narrative will hint at but not fully describe. For instance, there are few actual narrative details of the dramatic and central scene that takes place between Florens and her lover. Yet, the book is certainly wonderful. It does deal with servitude, but I came away with the understanding that slavery is not limited to people owning other people but includes emotional, cultural, and religious bondage. This is almost a book that needs to be read more than once.
A. Arias4.0 out of 5 stars
A Found Treasure
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2010
Two decades after her first novel "The Bluest Eye", had been published in 1970, Toni Morrison disclosed in an Afterword that she was dissatisfied with the book's language and its structure, and that it 'required a sophistication unavailable to me', she had confessed. Be that as it may, whether that was the case or not, I believe her first novel stands on its own merits, although, the sophistication she referred to, if you will, can be found in her newest work, "A Mercy". Without question, in my view, it is very much a contemporary classic work which resonates, not only with sophistication, but wisdom as well, after all it has been 39 years since the writing of her first novel and Morrison's insights into human nature, especially within the context of race relations, is quite profound.
Morrison has certainly put to good use her fertile mind, her imaginative ideas, and her passion to tell a story, a history of slavery that to her has always been too close for comfort but always within reach--emotionally within her grasp. Certainly her rich family ancestry has passed on to Morrison, many of the stories she so vividly talks about in all her books. The many heartfelt tales her wonderful characters portray and live out throughout her novels, in one form or another, are as breathtaking as they are heart-breaking, and more so, is the story told by Florens in this story.
An unknown character, who we soon learn, named Florens, opens this tale with a confession. A bloody deed. She tells of how she plans and plots her way to YOU, as she refers to the reader's conscience, as I understand it. Almost as if she wants us to be co-conspirators, or witnesses to her crime. At first, this is a confusing, albeit a necessary ploy on Morrison's part. Confusing because the narrative, its syntax that is, is somewhat unusual, because of the narrator's awkward phrasing, and necessary because Morrison knows how to involve her readers'-her audience in a partnership. She's a master at getting her readers to participate and become an active part or a willing character in her stories and I believe she succeeds brilliantly in this case.
But it is after that short, poetic, first chapter. The chapter you must read twice, in order to get it, that the story opens up as Jacob Vaark, the "white-man's conscience" in the story makes his entrance and stirs things up a bit. But of course, the very astute Morrison gives Vaark a formidable handicap: He is just as human as any other white man and therefore just as greedy, despite his admonition: "His distaste for dealing in flesh".
Morrison goes on and makes wise use of her invisible, sinister, narrator that opens the story, by using this narrator to begin many other chapters, slowly and methodically cluing us in on her devious plot. The task, the errand at hand she has been sent to carry out in the name of justice. In the name of her mother, a minha mae. (Meaning, "my mother" in Portuguese.) It is all very intriguing and as always, Morrison's plots are very active and take many turns and multiple points of view, which adds a wonderful texture to her writing.
If I had one tiny criticism, which I've justified in my own mind, it is that the ending sounds a bit preachy and authorial. Maybe even hard-hitting to those who receive the character's (and consequently, the author's) brave message. A message that Morrison has penned in subtler ways since her first novel. A message of her pain and the long-suffering among Blacks in a predominantly White world. The injustice wrought on her and her people throughout many generations. A strong admonition that nonetheless needs to be heard, and heeded. I just don't agree that it should be delivered so transparently in a work of fiction. (Could Toni Morrison be testing the waters for her take on an upcoming non-fiction account of slavery? We'll see.)
The characters in this novel are also delineated superficially, which is most likely intentional, as the plot and it's main theme, namely, injustice, are at the center of this powerful and beautifully written story.
If you're a newcomer to Morrison's writing, any of her great novels is a good place to start enjoying everything she has to offer. Start with her first, as mentioned, "The Bluest Eye", and work your way up, one by one, up to "A Mercy". So far her last story, but hopefully, not her last book.
Reading this novel was like discovering an old 17th century relic that contained an important message with valuable seeds inside of it. Seeds that when sown inside your heart, grow magically and eternally into something profound. Something beautiful.
Thank you for the courageous words, Toni Morrison, they are well-received. I applaud you and your wonderful words. (By-the-way, I bought and read this book right after its publication and wrote this review shortly thereafter, but for some reason hesitated posting it on Amazon. I bid you peace and much love, Toni Morrison. You are one of the literary greats of our time and I love your work. I can't wait for your next one.
"Beloved" is a favorite too.
Toni Morrison Set: "Song of Solomon," "Jazz," "Beloved," "The Bluest Eye."
Morrison has certainly put to good use her fertile mind, her imaginative ideas, and her passion to tell a story, a history of slavery that to her has always been too close for comfort but always within reach--emotionally within her grasp. Certainly her rich family ancestry has passed on to Morrison, many of the stories she so vividly talks about in all her books. The many heartfelt tales her wonderful characters portray and live out throughout her novels, in one form or another, are as breathtaking as they are heart-breaking, and more so, is the story told by Florens in this story.
An unknown character, who we soon learn, named Florens, opens this tale with a confession. A bloody deed. She tells of how she plans and plots her way to YOU, as she refers to the reader's conscience, as I understand it. Almost as if she wants us to be co-conspirators, or witnesses to her crime. At first, this is a confusing, albeit a necessary ploy on Morrison's part. Confusing because the narrative, its syntax that is, is somewhat unusual, because of the narrator's awkward phrasing, and necessary because Morrison knows how to involve her readers'-her audience in a partnership. She's a master at getting her readers to participate and become an active part or a willing character in her stories and I believe she succeeds brilliantly in this case.
But it is after that short, poetic, first chapter. The chapter you must read twice, in order to get it, that the story opens up as Jacob Vaark, the "white-man's conscience" in the story makes his entrance and stirs things up a bit. But of course, the very astute Morrison gives Vaark a formidable handicap: He is just as human as any other white man and therefore just as greedy, despite his admonition: "His distaste for dealing in flesh".
Morrison goes on and makes wise use of her invisible, sinister, narrator that opens the story, by using this narrator to begin many other chapters, slowly and methodically cluing us in on her devious plot. The task, the errand at hand she has been sent to carry out in the name of justice. In the name of her mother, a minha mae. (Meaning, "my mother" in Portuguese.) It is all very intriguing and as always, Morrison's plots are very active and take many turns and multiple points of view, which adds a wonderful texture to her writing.
If I had one tiny criticism, which I've justified in my own mind, it is that the ending sounds a bit preachy and authorial. Maybe even hard-hitting to those who receive the character's (and consequently, the author's) brave message. A message that Morrison has penned in subtler ways since her first novel. A message of her pain and the long-suffering among Blacks in a predominantly White world. The injustice wrought on her and her people throughout many generations. A strong admonition that nonetheless needs to be heard, and heeded. I just don't agree that it should be delivered so transparently in a work of fiction. (Could Toni Morrison be testing the waters for her take on an upcoming non-fiction account of slavery? We'll see.)
The characters in this novel are also delineated superficially, which is most likely intentional, as the plot and it's main theme, namely, injustice, are at the center of this powerful and beautifully written story.
If you're a newcomer to Morrison's writing, any of her great novels is a good place to start enjoying everything she has to offer. Start with her first, as mentioned, "The Bluest Eye", and work your way up, one by one, up to "A Mercy". So far her last story, but hopefully, not her last book.
Reading this novel was like discovering an old 17th century relic that contained an important message with valuable seeds inside of it. Seeds that when sown inside your heart, grow magically and eternally into something profound. Something beautiful.
Thank you for the courageous words, Toni Morrison, they are well-received. I applaud you and your wonderful words. (By-the-way, I bought and read this book right after its publication and wrote this review shortly thereafter, but for some reason hesitated posting it on Amazon. I bid you peace and much love, Toni Morrison. You are one of the literary greats of our time and I love your work. I can't wait for your next one.
"Beloved" is a favorite too.
Toni Morrison Set: "Song of Solomon," "Jazz," "Beloved," "The Bluest Eye."