Week 6/52: A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Confession: I am feeling guilty for not loving East of Eden. Hopefully you still like me? 

So I read A Mercy, another novel telling a very American story right on the heels of East of Eden. And it's devastating. If you have never read anything by Toni Morrison, this is a very good place to start. First, it's not that long and second, it's not quite as arresting as Beloved. Set in 1690, A Mercy tells the story of a white farmer, his wife, and the three slave women on their farm. The utter depravity of the slave trade in the New World brings nothing but destruction in the lives of the characters, particularly the women in the novel. The language is beautiful. No trickery here.

“To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.”