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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13184
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 12, 2008 - 02:39 pm: | 
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I just finished "a mercy", Toni Morrison's latest release which, for me, turned out to be an extraordinary example of why this literary titan deserves all the accolades she receives. "a mercy" is the type of book to be read for the sheer joy of reading. Morrison has such a wonderful command of the language that it was a pleasure to immerse myself in her prose,
The theme of this cogent little novel revolves around both the physical and mental aspects of bondage. A poignant yet powerful tale, "a mercy" takes place in the 1600s, back during the early years of slavery. Its subject matter is familiar, but the approach to it is fresh, thanks to Ms Morrison's creative genius.
This book's vivid, sympathetic characters consist of slaves, indentured servants and landowners dwelling in and around the colony of Maryland. Their lives are all entwined and the impact of their relationships is what provokes the transformations they've all gone through as the book comes to a close.
Adding intrigue to the plot is a haunting specter of supernaturalness that hovers around a farm where religion and superstition merge, and where love exists in many forms.
It is not necesssary to lift my voice in praise of this novel because true artistry requires no embellishment. It is enough to say that I was left with a feeling of fulfillment at having been able to comprehend and appreciate the marvelous imagery used by the author to spin this engrossing story.
Ironically, this is not an enjoyable book but, rather, a touching one, - one that stirs the reader because the author is so adept at stating a case for - "mercy". |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 412
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 12, 2008 - 04:51 pm: |
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The narrator says at the end of one of the early sections of the novel that the morning was tricked out in stars. I didn't know that tricked out was a 17th century expression 
the approach to it is fresh
A hallmark of Ms. Morrison's early fiction is what literary scholar Susan Willis has called the "three-woman utopian household," and she applies her theory to Ms. Morrison's first three novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon, all of which I've read but don't remember in exquisite detail, however, I'll take Ms. Willis's word for it. Anyone who's interested could probably google on the phrase and read parts of her essay, which I should probably do too.
Although it's not Ms. Morrison's theory, my point is simply that this utopian womanist household is defined in opposition to the three-woman household in William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!" which is necessarily all things bad by comparison: dystopian where Ms. Morrison's are utopian, patriarchal where Ms. Morrison's are matriarchal, and so forth.
In the Faulkner novel, the three women -- Judith Sutpen (Thomas Sutpen's wife), Rosa Coldfield (her sister and his soon-to-be Sutpen), and Clytie Sutpen, his daughter of mixed-race who is not an heir to his estate) -- come together at "Sutpen's Hundred" for purposes of safety and survival while Thomas is away fighting in the Civil War. What happens is that during this time together all the hierarchical measures of age, class and race between the women are eliminated. But this situation is supposedly male-centric because they're wating on The Man.
Unfortunately, the essay was written before the publication of Beloved, and though I don't claim to know much about Willis's theory, the three-woman household of Sethe, Baby Suggs, and Beloved would be hard to describe as utopian. It seems more like this one in that regard, don't you think?
In short, Florens is obsessed with the carpenter -- the black freedman who I don't think has a name. The white woman is sisterly up to a point and then she becomes extremely cruel (a shocker, I know ) Lina (a good Faulknerian name) is an interesting character (because, you know Natives bathe every day, unlike "Christians" (ever time us do what?)
Jacob Vaark, the plantation owner is Dutch. The noun "vaarken" in Dutch means pig, the n is silent. Maybe that's what is meant by the comment about his boyhood when they punned on his last name. The wife is named Rebekka, which seems odd because it seems like a Dutch spelling of Rebecca, although I think she's described as English because as a child she saw people being "drawn and quartered" (or disemboweled) and their entrails thrown into the Thames. They name their son Patrician. Unfortunately, Ms. Morrison is quoted in a recent book as calling the great Ralph Ellison a "black literary patrician," which doesn't mean anything good, believe me. It'd be like saying Little Lord Faunt LeRoi. So I still haven't forgiven her for that.
The palatial plantation house that Jacob returns to after his sojourn in Barbados (where the heretofore relatively decent man has earned his fortune on a sugar plantation), like Sutpen's Hundred which Thomas Sutpen builds after a similar adventure in Haiti, is windowless. The glazier hasn't visited either house.
Some of the issues of social class in both novels seem related. They're different in the sense that Jacob's ambition seems driven by money while Sutpen is a more complicated character and his ambition also involves race. The two white indentured working men on the plantation are interesting and I think they're mostly ciphers for social class. One of them, Willard, is roiled by the free African blacksmith getting paid a wage while he, a white man, is merely working off his indenture. In Faulkner's novel, the same experience was traumatic and a defining one for young Thomas Sutpen. But in A Mercy, when the carpenter calls Willard "Mister Bond," he's tickled pink because he's never been called "mister" by anyone, white or black. So that may be a bit utopian. |
Crystal
Veteran Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 471
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 12, 2008 - 06:42 pm: |
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Thanks for the review Cynique. Guess I need to move this up on my list. Did you read/like Beloved?
Steve - you're just gonna MAKE me read Absalom huh? LOL |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13185
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 10:57 am: |
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Thanks for offering your in-depth feed back on "A Mercy", Steve. Until you mentioned it, I didn't think about the recurring theme of a female triad that crops up in Morrison's book. It does behoove the reader to be ever-aware of how multi-layered, her works are. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13187
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 11:01 am: |
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Thanks for referring to my comments as a "review", Crystal. I don't really adhere to all the guidelines of a review when I post my impressions of a particular book. I just make some observations and reveal enough of the story-line to give others an idea of what the book is about.
Yes, I did read "Beloved", and I wasn't bowled over by it because it was so convoluted. And that's what I appreciated about "a mercy". I was able to distill the nectar of the story from the fruit of the prose and it gave me a nice "high".  |
Libralind2
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 1132
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 09:23 pm: |
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Hi Steve...thank you for helping me understand just what in the hail Morrison was talking about. I can NOT read her works..LOL
LiLi |
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