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laurennmiller's review against another edition
4.0
A brutal and beautiful story, each chapter told by a different character on a colonial Maryland farm in 1690. I listened to this audiobook, and though Toni Morrison’s voice is gorgeous I don’t necessarily recommend that, because the lack of chapter markers and switching between characters makes things difficult to follow.
culuriel's review against another edition
4.0
Toni Morrison returns to her true talent, creating impelling stories from personal relationships filled with the tension created by human power relationships. I enjoyed this immensely and kind of blew through it. It is both intimately detailed and yet not detailed enough. I have a feeling that some events Prof. Morrison summarizes couldn't have been told as a plot point. It was also not always clear which character was narrating. Sometimes this really got in the way of understanding what was going on. But still a lip-smackingly satisfying novel by [b:Toni Morrison|6149|Beloved|Toni Morrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165555299s/6149.jpg|736076].
lisanreads's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing novel. What gorgeous writing. I've been reading this slowly over several weeks, which is the ideal way to read this poetic novel.
alongapath's review against another edition
3.0
Toni Morrison is able to pack so much feeling into so few pages and this novel is a prime example of her mastery. As small pox takes its toll on the Jacob Vaark farm, the women left behind all struggle with their masterless home, knowing that the good life is now over and hard times are coming for each of them. Mistress Vaark cannot keep the farm since she is a woman and she will be expected to marry again and bear children again. Lina will surely suffer as a native woman without a tribe. Florens, a slave girl who has followed her heart, will be punished dearly for her crimes of passion. And Sorrow, aka Complete, is pouring too much of herself into her child. There is no positive future for any of them yet they sit and await the next chapter of their lives.
Beautifully written but confusing in its non-chronological (non-sensical) telling. It seemed to me that the chapters were out of order - starting with the end and ending with the start. I often felt off-balance when beginning a new chapter since the narrator, the setting and the time frame were rarely mentioned. And the actual climax scene of the novel was vague A further star was lost due to the lack of quotation marks. ugh.
Beautifully written but confusing in its non-chronological (non-sensical) telling. It seemed to me that the chapters were out of order - starting with the end and ending with the start. I often felt off-balance when beginning a new chapter since the narrator, the setting and the time frame were rarely mentioned. And the actual climax scene of the novel was vague
Spoiler
did Florens kill the blacksmith and the little boy??abeerhoque's review against another edition
5.0
A Mercy is a story of slavery in colonial America - in all the ways people, black and white, women and men, can be owned and broken. I love Ms. Morrison's way of writing. She starts with some core mystery and then wraps it with concentric circles of narrative relayed by different characters, and in doing so, slowly reveals the heart of the mystery, all while setting the scene and telling a history with precise and gorgeous detail. A Mercy is no different, and no less harrowing and beautiful and enraging and enlightening and heartbreaking.
kingphilwith1l's review against another edition
4.0
this is one of those stories that you need a moment to digest, especially being a Black American. I read this after listening to the first 5 episodes of the podcast version of The 1619 Project, so for this really jump into the psyche of so many different perspectives and experiences of the transatlantic slave trade is a realism I haven't experienced much. I highly recommend
toni_reads07's review against another edition
4.0
Unlike Toni's early work (Beloved, Jazz, Paradise), there is no particular inciting incident over which the reader must fret or, more common in her work, which underscores every intimate detail of these characters' lives. Instead she chooses a subject--slavery--and subjects the reader to the various, genuine, frank reality of a group of slaves. Florens, speaking in 1st person, immediately captivates the heart; Lena presides as mother of all, not as Sethe before her in any personal way, but by means to do solely with her chosen (not by her) dignity; and then there's sweet, confounded, innocent Sorrow, who learns what it means to claim yourself, though a physical slave you may be or remain. Men, as always, are present here in Morrison's pre-racial, pre-United States colonial landscape. And yet they're not the stars of this masterpiece; the men provide interest and context, they feed the individual journeys of these three fascinating women, and they display the whole range of male emotion (love, joy, passion, cruelty, fragility, temperance) but Toni devotes such few words to fleshing out her male characters here that, while they do not go unnoticed, they're far from the overall point of the narrative.
With her usual breathtaking comfort of language, Toni Morrison easily displays precisely every single reason why she reigns as America's latest literary Nobel laureate (pre-Bob Dylan, of course) and it's only black female one.
With her usual breathtaking comfort of language, Toni Morrison easily displays precisely every single reason why she reigns as America's latest literary Nobel laureate (pre-Bob Dylan, of course) and it's only black female one.
plaidsicle's review against another edition
I found the prose here so beautiful, like mist, but also very tightly-woven, like a tapestry. what kind of genius can weave a tapestry out of mist? Toni Morrison, somehow.
wormsinmysalad's review against another edition
5.0
There were two years in college where I read every Toni Morrison novel that was in publication, and each book left me breathless. Her lyrical prose, her insightful commentary, her grasp of the complexities of the human mind and heart are speak to me in a profound way. It has been a long time since I've read her, and this book did not disappoint. A further plus was listening to her read it in the audio form. Her story follows slaves and masters in New England in the 1690s. That's all I am going to tell you, because a Morrison novel is most delicious when you jump into the action with reckless abandon. This novel was time well spent.