12: A Mercy

Two-book day!  Two-book day!  OK, OK -- I didn't read anything yesterday, and I didn't like this morning's read at all, so I kind of HAD to pick up a second novel today.  I'm sooooo happy that I did.

So, over the past few years, I've wondered about Toni Morrison.  This is not a woman who rests on the many laurels she has received as one of the greatest living writers in America, but (in all candor) I've been left waiting by her past few works.  

I consider Song of Solomon and Beloved to me true masterworks, but I've been disappointed more recently.

In A Mercy, Toni Morrison does not disappoint -- not for a page, a paragraph, or a word.

This work is deep, dense and remarkable.  When I first picked up the actual book, it felt slight and light in my hands.  What I encountered as I turned the first page, though, was a rich and deep narrative, characters that lived both in the page and in the mind, and a sense of survival and passion that is so important to Morrison's work.

I highly recommend A Mercy.  It sits near the top of Morrison's illustrious canon.