Poignant portraits of the unusual and eccentric fill the writing of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. Her ability to create characters, specifically women, from parts of the feminine psyche is deftly illustrated in her novels Sula and Beloved. Her latest novel, A Mercy, is no different as it weaves a handful of distinct voices to form the story of life set on a small farm in America circa 1680. Included in The New York Times Book Review “10 Best Books of 2008,”A Mercy is one to read if you haven’t already.
At a time when the slave trade was in its infancy, race did not yet have a direct correlation with slavery. When Anglo-Dutch trader Jacob Vaark finds himself with land and in need of hands to help tend it, but hating to deal in “flesh,” he ends up with Lina, a Native American whose village was wiped out when she was young. Following Lina, Vaark gets a wife, Rebekka, who travels six weeks aboard a ship from England in response to an ad Vaark made. Together, these women from different worlds work together, figuring out how to farm in the temperamental New World and how to survive. Becoming somewhat friends, slave and mistress create a self-sufficient and detached dwelling away from neighbors. Then, Vaark takes in Sorrow, a peculiar girl who bad luck seems to follow, and next Florens, an ingénue slave girl, whose mother gave her away to Vaark. Florens, the voice who starts the story in her choppy dialect, is forever haunted by her mother’s act and seeks the love and approval of those around her—from this anomalous family that has been created. When Vaark is gone on business, as he is much of the time, these women live and survive together, but will they sustain in this merciless land? On individual journeys to self-enlightenment, these orphan women try to fit themselves in so-called life through loss and love.
Morrison’s trademark imagery and poetic prose paint their world as you read, from the harsh winters in thigh-high snow to the days spent bathing in the river to the handsome blacksmith that Florens fawns over. In addition to examining the roots of slavery in our country, A Mercy explores our instincts for survival and what ties us to things greater than just ourselves.
Review written by Jan F. Lee