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Mercy (2003)

de Alissa York

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433581,229 (3.25)13
"In 1948 a handsome priest named August Day arrives in the well-ordered town of Mercy, Manitoba, to take over the church of St. Mary Immaculate. In the first days of his tenure he marries the town butcher to Mathilda, the orphaned niece of the church housekeeper. During the wedding his eyes meet Mathilda's, and from that point on the two can only see each other. The young bride retreats from her husband to spend more time at St. Mary's, drawn to the perfumed silence of the pews, the low flicker of devotion, the husky voice of Father Day beyond the confessional screen. Their mutual obsession grows, leaving its scar on the town long after their love affair is over." "Half a century later, another kind of preacher comes to Mercy. A womanizing widower with a damaged daughter he doesn't understand, the Reverend Carl Mann believes that the key to his life lies somewhere in the sprawling spruce bog north of town - perhaps in the hands of the woman who has lived her whole life there in secret."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (més)
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A solid if rather traditional novel about life on Canada's prairies. The first half is particularly good at evoking loneliness -- specifically the sort that comes with the limited opportunities for marriage and romance in a small agricultural town and the sort that a priest's vows of celibacy impose. The author's descriptions of the psychological stresses silently endured by her characters are fine examples of fiction writing done well, and her knowledge of the various professions described here, specifically that of a butcher and that of a priest, provides some added realism that really sharpens her story. In the second half of the book, which involves characters connected with the ones we met in its first half but which is set a generation or so later, things get a bit dicier. The writing's still good, and some of the images hit home, but the author also chooses to introduce a supernatural element that I didn't love. Furthermore, her take on a little girl with what seems a lot like autism seems overly romanticized and decades out of date. Despite all this, "Mercy" is not a bad read, and I'd recommend it to anyone with a particular interest in Western Canadian lit, or Western literature in general. ( )
  TheAmpersand | Jul 30, 2022 |
There's a gothic sensibility at the core of Alissa York's first novel, Mercy. The town of Mercy, Manitoba, is a hotbed of eccentricity and irrational longing where people nurse secret loves, illicit desires and hidden obsessions and where the town drunk lives on the bog in a house made of empty bottles. August Day is a young priest who arrives in Mercy to replace the recently deceased Father Rock. August's mother was a prostitute, and he bears the scars of an emotionally challenging upbringing. His first task upon arriving in Mercy is to preside at the wedding of Thomas Rose and Mathilda Nickels, the town butcher and the young niece of the church housekeeper. But the moment August and Mathilda lock gazes their tragedy is set in motion, and for the remainder of the first part of the novel, which is set in the late 1940s, Mathilda tries to seduce August while he resists her advances with every ounce of strength and every scrap of faith he can muster. It is, however, not enough. When we return to Mercy for act two it is now 2003, and we encounter some of the folks whose lives and fates were shaped by the tragic events of those early years. Alissa York writes beautiful prose, but one reaches the end of this novel feeling that perhaps a firmer editorial hand would have been of benefit to the book and its author. There are too many obscure passages and vague connections, and the odd behaviour of some of the characters seems to have no purpose other than to be odd. There is also a tacked-on quality to the second part of the book, which is less than dramatically satisfying. Some readers, as they approach the end of this section, will be scratching their head wondering what it's all about. Mercy is, in the final analysis, a first novel, and its weaknesses are of the sort that an experienced writer will solve next time out. But Alissa York's talent is undeniable, and because she knows how to use compelling characters and dramatic tension to pull the reader into her story, her next book will be worth seeking out. ( )
  icolford | Jun 21, 2013 |
This was an incredibly haunting and compelling read, which I enjoyed very much. Beautifully written, with a great descriptive storyline. The characterization was impeccable, and I became very attached to the players, particularly the butcher, his wife, and the young priest in the first half of the book. I loved the religious and slaughterhouse references throughout the first half as well.

My interest waned significantly during the second half, and I couldn't help but wish that the author had developed the story further in the first half, and perhaps left her (interesting enough) ideas in the second half for a sequel or another book entirely. I would have loved to hear more, more, more about the burgeoning illicit attraction, and also about what ended up happening to the kindly butcher after his wife was lost.

I'm giving it a solid three out of five stars and will look forward to exploring more works by Alissa York, a Canadian author whose name I was not previously familiar with. ( )
1 vota michellereads | Nov 19, 2011 |
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"In 1948 a handsome priest named August Day arrives in the well-ordered town of Mercy, Manitoba, to take over the church of St. Mary Immaculate. In the first days of his tenure he marries the town butcher to Mathilda, the orphaned niece of the church housekeeper. During the wedding his eyes meet Mathilda's, and from that point on the two can only see each other. The young bride retreats from her husband to spend more time at St. Mary's, drawn to the perfumed silence of the pews, the low flicker of devotion, the husky voice of Father Day beyond the confessional screen. Their mutual obsession grows, leaving its scar on the town long after their love affair is over." "Half a century later, another kind of preacher comes to Mercy. A womanizing widower with a damaged daughter he doesn't understand, the Reverend Carl Mann believes that the key to his life lies somewhere in the sprawling spruce bog north of town - perhaps in the hands of the woman who has lived her whole life there in secret."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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