Mercy [Paperback]

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Mercy [Paperback]

Product Details

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press; Later Printing edition (April 3, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743422449
ISBN-13: 978-0743422444
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Jodi Picoult
List Price : ~~$16.00~~
Price : $10.88
You Save : $5.12 (32%)

Customer Reviews

I can't remember reading a book where all the characters had such undesirable traits that reading any further became an effort. The only character who was somewhat bearable was a cat and that's probably because it spent its time either eating or hidden in someone's backpack serving as a parallel to everything else that's hidden away in this small town of Wheelock, MA.
I'm already a Jodi Picoult fan having read and liked four of her other books -- The Pact, Keeping Faith, Plain Truth and Salem Falls -- so when I say that I didn't enjoy this book at all, I have a good basis for comparison. Never before have I read a book where I felt so detached from each and every character. The wife Allie has no backbone, the husband Cam has no loyalty, the mistress Mia has no values, the mercy killer Jamie has no fortitude, his dead wife Maggie was selfish, Cam's mother Ellen is a wacko.....I could go on and on.
The backdrop of the story is one of intense love -- so intense that your emotions take over your senses. There's a case of a mercy killing, another story of a cheating spouse and a courtroom scene where all the scenarios are played out. The events leading up to and after the killing are all impulsive -- sometimes so impulsive that they're hard to believe. There are other parts in the book where reality is suspended and mysticism takes over. I'm always at a loss when an author resorts to this.
Probably the biggest complaint I have is the intense lack of editing. I can't stand when I'm reading a book and two people are having a conversation yet the name you're reading on the typewritten page is NOT the name of the person who is actually doing the talking. This happened on three separate occasions and after awhile, it only added to my overall confusion and lack of continuity of my reading experience. I'm usually not this hard when reviewing a book and it could be the fact that I read it in the midst of our great American tragedy which could have altered my mood considerably. For that reason, I've given it three stars as opposed to the two stars which I had originally intended. Somehow though, I don't think it was my mood...the book just wasn't that enjoyable for me.

I have read most of Jodi Picoult's books and reviewed some, and they were all outstanding. This is the first one in which I was really disappointed. After page 25, I knew a lot about one person's genealogy, another's high school reminiscences, an unknown person who had a tag sale of all her husband's stuff when he was away, and a few notes with no indication who wrote them or to whom they were written or what they had to do with anything. The story seemed to be constantly sidetracking. It took forever to cut to the action and then it would be interrupted by more distractions.
I didn't get the point of having this book set in a town inhabited by an entire Scottish clan that emigrated together two hundred years before. Maybe there actually is a town like this, but it didn't ring true. By page 100, the names of the characters were making me nuts. It reminded me of Brigadoon where there is a song that goes something like MacGregor, MacDougall, Macduff and MacCoy, McKenna MacNeil and MacRae, etc. If she had set the book in Scotland, not everyone would have names like this. It was impossible for me to take seriously anyone named Verona MacBean. There also names like Watchell Spitlick (!)
The plot seems far-fetched and unrealistic. The issue is a good one; there is a controversial case in the Florida courts right now. But smothering your wife and then pulling up in the main square to announce it to the whole town, with the dead body in tow-they didn't even do that in Brigadoon. You're kind of waiting for James to break into song at this point. Allie hiring Mia and inviting her to stay in their house when she knows nothing about her and doesn't even ask is crazy. She could be a fugitive from justice, a serial killer, an illegal immigrant with no Social Security number, who knows. The police chief and his wife never lock their doors. I've never lived in a small town, but come on, this isn't the 1930s, where anyone would invite a passing transient in to have lunch with the family. The police chief secretly pays a lawyer to get his cousin off a murder charge while he participates in the prosecution? Wouldn't the court appoint an attorney?
The book really isn't about euthanasia. It's about marital problems, flower arranging, New Age healing, people seeing ghosts, scenes that are repeated later in the story, and scenes that don't go anywhere. Verona seems like she's going to be a major character, but we hear nothing about her after chapter 1. Why didn't Picoult do some research on the real issue and treat it in depth instead of straying off into all this trivia? Anyone can write about extramarital affairs. It's as if she felt she had to fill 400 pages no matter what.
This is the first time I've had to force myself to finish a book by Jodi Picoult. Neither the plot nor the characters captured my interest, and it didn't get any better. It's too bad, because she could have done so much more with the real subject matter instead of wandering off onto topics that may have interested her, but bored a lot of readers.