A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Can Toni Morrison write a bad book?

I don't think it's possible. "A Mercy" will certainly not be the book to challenge that belief, either.

In this novel, Morrison helps the reader journey back to the earliest days of what would become the United States, when both the budding nation and her slave trade were young. The nominal heroine of the book is a young slave girl, Florens, who is given to a reluctant farmer/merchant as partial payment for a bad debt. Through the eyes of her owner's wife, older slave woman, and ward, as well as Florens' own thoughts,we see Florens change from a young girl who is devastated by what she sees as her mother's betrayal in giving up her own daughter,to a bitter woman betrayed by a man she thinks she loves.

That's the top story, and it's a good one.

The reality, though, goes much deeper. The story of one woman's loss and betrayal by a system that belittles her humanity is sorrowful, but even more important is Morrison's clear-eyed revelation of the sorrows of being a woman at that time, in general. Florens' story is painful and shameful, but Morrison brings the point home sharply that all of the women in this story are chattel. Florens is born a slave to a lascivious master; Lina, the older slave, is sold into into slavery by men of a neighboring tribe after  her own tribe is destroyed by smallpox (brought to Africa by the white invaders); Sorrow, the owner's ward, comes to the family after having been kept as a pet and virtual slave on her father's ship and having been abused to the point of near insanity by a the sons of her Protestant minister 'saviour'. Even Rebekkah, the master's wife, is effectively 'sold' to him by her father, for the price of passage to the new world and the satisfaction of one less mouth to feed. As the merchant master travels, these untrained women are left behind to run the farm that is their backbone and failsafe if his sales are unsuccessful. And they do it. They make it work, beyond all expectation, only to all face homelessness, misery, and privation upon his death.

As much as I admire Morrison's characterizations of all involved, two characters that we seldom see have the biggest impact: the free African blacksmith that captures Florens' attention and admiration, and her mother. Though he plays his role in creating the bitter woman Florens becomes, I can't stop thinking about his definition of slavery, where it really exists. I won't tell you what that is, because I want you to read this excellent book, but know that I've thought about it a lot. And Florens' mother... her actions are finally explained at the end of the book. It won't come as a surprise to any mother, but my heart ached for Florens. If only she'd been old enough to understand.

THIS is what makes "A Mercy" powerful, especially if you're prone (as am I) to bring the lessons of any given story into the modern day. I look around me, at the children and women in want, and I have to wonder: have things changed all that much?

I give this four coffee cups out of five. And I'll read it again. And again.