|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon
At the age of 12, having borne more suffering in his child's body than any adult should endure, Sydney Henderson vows never to harm another human soul. Turning his back on the violent alcoholism of his upbringing, self-educated Sydney wins the honest respect of the beautiful Elly and the children they bear. Honest respect, however, is rarely a match for fear and base human opportunism. Manipulated, attacked, and abused by a small community eager for a scapegoat, Sydney loses his job, the health of his wife, and, most importantly, the respect of his son Lyle. "There is no worse flaw in man's character," Richards knows, "than that of wanting to belong."
The superb, controlled, and unapologetic Mercy Among the Children is nothing less than an inquiry into human strength. Richards uses the crack of ribs on a frigid night to remind us of the opportunistic populism of much so-called morality. Mercy, which shared Canada's premier fiction award, the Giller Prize, with Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost, combines the hound dog's attention to locale of fellow Maritimer Alistair MacLeod with the quotidian insight of countryman Timothy Findley's The Wars, especially its reminder that the emotions behind war also drive fights over who should scrub the dinner dishes. --Darryl Whetter
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
the truth DOES matter!,
By Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mercy Among the Children: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is among the very best fiction I have read in a long long while. And yet, it was given to me by a friend who could not endure reading any further than the first few chapters. I think it is the kind of story you either love or hate, it is dark and frustrating and definitely not a "feel-good". I can see how some could feel smothered and weary with the relentless pessimistic Hardyesque fatalism that Richards marinates this thing in... it's like Jude The Obsure meets the biblical Book of Job! But I like Hardy. And Job for that matter! So I did not mind the constant question that revolves in "Mercy" which is, "How is the Henderson family going to survive the terrible injustice, shame and misfortune that is hurled against them?" Does truth matter?Set in rural New Brunswick, Lyle Henderson, now nineteen years old, narrates the history of his family... the misfortune and ostracism that began with his grandfather and was passed on down to Lyle's father Sydney. At the age of twelve, an accident happens and Sydney, mistaking his friend for dead and believing himself responsible, makes a rash vow to God. If the boy lives, Sydney will never harm another living soul. The boy gets up and walks away. Lyle's recollections chronicle the result of Sydney's radical superhuman commitment to an unlimited "turn-the-other-cheek" pacifism. Sydney subjects himself, and in turn, subjects his family to a life of utter poverty and ridicule in the face of escalating accusations and abuse that come from a community that is only too willing to take advantage of his non-resistance. As Lyle says at one point "My mother and father's dreams were always dispensable to certain people, who for some reason believed that they themselves and their dreams were indispensable." What a profound and deeply moving, beautifully crafted book. You will love the victims, and you will loathe the villains. But, even some of the villains you will learn to love (or at least pity), because in the end, there is mercy among the children.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable!,
By
This review is from: Mercy Among the Children: A Novel (Hardcover)
Here is a book about poverty, both of the spirit and of the pocket. Written in spare, tidy prose with exceptional characterizations, it is a dark tale periodically shot through with veins of pure gold; moments of such exquisite sweetness (in the character of little Percy, or the aging but quietly heroic Jay Beard) that they are painful. There is nothing stock about the narrative or about the characters who are among the most fully realized I've ever read. The good people (the Hendersons) are all forgivably flawed in some small way. And the bad people are understandable in their angry manipulations, in their negative strengths and human weaknesses. This is not light reading but it is potent and powerful, an evocation of the lengths to which the very poor can be driven. Lyle Henderson, son of the Job-like Sydney, narrator of the family history is a most believably tortured and loving soul. One hopes, throughout this book, for affirming moments that never materialize. Yet there is such truth here that I found it impossible not to keep reading.I am dismayed that I didn't know of the award-winning David Adams Richards before reading this book, but I will certainly be reading his other books at the first possible opportunity. The author's talent is rare and wonderful; his eye is clear and he wastes no time on frilly adjectives. This is prose (and truth) at its purest--a truly remarkable achievement. My highest recommendation.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for laughs.,
This review is from: Mercy Among the Children (Paperback)
There is a quote, that I must have picked up somewhere, that says that you can tell art is good when it stays with you. When those scenes from a certain film, that line of poetry, or that section of a novel comes back into your head time and time again - it's a sure sign that the work is great. For me this is one of those books. The number of times it has come into my life and my thoughts I cannot count. I think it might have broken my heart.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
|
