Book Review | Book Chatter

A Mercy
Toni Morrison
Pub. Date: November 2008
Publisher: Random House Audio Publishing Group
Format: Compact Disc
ISBN-13: 9780739332542
ISBN: 0739332546
Edition Description: Unabridged, 4 CDs

The blurb from the publisher:

In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.

Jacob 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, “with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady.” Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.

There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who’s spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens’ mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.

The Short of It:

Read by the author, this is a mesmerizing story of love, betrayal and pain.

The Rest of It:

I’ve read a few of Morrison’s books and I always have trouble with them. For me, the words lack a certain rhythm and I find myself re-reading pages that I’ve just read. I never understood the draw. That said, my book group chose A Mercy for October’s discussion and I was sort of dreading it and looking forward to it at the same time.

For one, it’s been years since I’ve read one of her books. Perhaps I’ve grown as a reader. Perhaps my experience this time will be different. I promptly went out and got the book, read a chapter or two and then stopped. Nope, still the same. Still haltingly strange for me. So then I ordered the book on audio. It’s read by Toni Morrison and I figured that if it didn’t strike a chord with me, and she was reading it as it was meant to be heard, then I would give up on Morrison altogether.

I’m happy to report that I loved it! Morrison’s voice is melodic at times but definitely has a certain cadence to it. That haltingly strange way of speaking that I mentioned in the book form, is present in her speech patterns, but hearing her voice brought it all together for me. I then went back to the book and had no problems reading it. Have you ever done that?

After smoothing all this out, I settled into the story and found it to be haunting at times, yet the strength of these women amazed me. There is a wonderful interview with the author at the end of the audio book which should not be missed. Now that I’ve had this experience, I plan to re-read some of her other books.

Have you ever had a hard time reading a famous author and then wondered what all the fuss was about? Have you ever resorted to the audio book to see if it was different in some way?

Betsy-Tacy
Maud Hart Lovelace
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: June 1979
ISBN-13: 9780064400961
Age Range: 7 to 10
144pp
Series: Betsy-Tacy
Edition Description: Reissue

The blurb from the publisher:

There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy’s age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, they do—a little girl named Tacy. And from the moment they meet at Betsy’s fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy becoms such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.

Betsy and Tacy have lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and dress up and go calling. And one day, they come home to a wonderful surprise—a new friend named Tib.

The Short of It:

Delightful, fun and incredibly charming!

The Rest of It:

My daughter is new to reading so we are always looking for books to read together so when Book Club Girl mentioned Betsy-Tacy I was like “Who in the world is Betsy Tacy?” Well, Betsy and Tacy are actually two girls who happen to be best friends. Do you remember when you were young and how you used to play until the street lights came on? How you would carve that old refrigerator box into a playhouse because video and computer games didn’t exist? Well, this book is all that and so much more!

Betsy-Tacy is the first book in the series and is made up of short stories about such things as picnics, paper dolls and the first day of school. There are hills to climb and family dinners to be had. This book is just charming. My daughter said that she is Tacy and that I am Betsy. We sit on the couch and look forward to the adventures that these girls share.

Even for me, an older reader, I find that it’s quite easy to slip back into childhood while reading these stories. After a long day a work, who wouldn’t want to slip back into childhood for a little bit of an escape? If you have never read a Betsy-Tacy book, I urge you to check them out. My daughter and I are really enjoying them but I think I am enjoying them a little bit more. Don’t tell!