The Mercy Seat

THE MERCY SEAT

by Rilla Askew

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1999, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1998

 

Date Read: August 10, 2022

 

At the beginning, The Mercy Seat was captivating as the reader is immersed in a past that is difficult to imagine. The bravery it takes, even when being chased by the law, to pack up one’s entire existence and take off for unknown territory is astounding. And many don’t make the journey, as witnessed by Demaris (?), the matriarch of the Lodi family. Mattie, the young narrator of the novel, believes her mother died of a broken heart, unable to leave behind her native Kentucky for Oklahoma.

 

What started out as promising, however, quickly became tedious. Askew attempts for a level of spirituality that did not seem to mesh with the story. I understand that the children were made to seem haunted and strange, particularly Mattie, but this side-track – from the black wet-nurse to the native housekeeper – only served to exemplify overt racism, rather than mystical beliefs.

 

The entire way through, I was grasping for any one of these characters to cheer for. I didn’t like any of them, including Mattie. I can understand that she was just a young girl set in the midst of impossible circumstances but the way she treats the wet-nurse, her siblings, her extended family and the native woman that nurses her back to health, turned my stomach. Fayette was a classic villain that was easy to hate but I feel unsure if Askew was reaching for a cast of unlikable characters.

 

Towards the end, the change in narrators to the perspective of superfluous side characters didn’t do much to redeem this novel. I would have been more moved to witness the inner workings of some of the main characters instead of the blacksmith’s son, who implies John making his first rifle somehow influenced the course of events, but I never figured out how.

 

Finally, the entire story could have been told in half the pages. There are a lot of side stories and history that don’t contribute all that much to the narrative arch. Granted, I’m not a professional author and it’s easy to sling criticism towards other’s work but at times the narrative was repetitive and non-elucidating.

 

Overall, this was a bust for me. Starts strong and had to drag myself to finish.

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