I find Toni Morrison hard to read. Her point-of-view characters are so far removed from American mainstream, both sociologically and historically, that their language and syntax is hard to follow. In some of her books, say
The Bluest Eye and
Beloved, I found the payoff to be worth all the "work." Sad to say, in
A Mercy I didn't. The book is set in the 1680s when the slave trade is just beginning on this continent. It does have worthy things to say about the loss of freedom, respect and self-worth, but IMHO without the power of some of her other books. Makes me think I'm about due for another rereading of
The Bluest Eye.
A Mercy, IMHO, falls into the category of Literature—note the capital L. As a result, a few words gave me trouble.
1) "palatinate" as in "But the palatinate was Romish to the core." (page 15.) I'm now reminded of why I hate dictionaries. Palatinate: "(lowercase ) the territory under the jurisdiction of a palatine." (
www.dictionary.com) It does earlier define Palatine as two parts of ancient Germany, so I figured it out. But I'm annoyed that the don't-use-a-word-to-define-the-word-itself rule doesn't seem to apply to dictionaries.
2) "deathfeet" as in "The deathfeet of the Europes." (page 63) No entry. Deathhead, short for death's head, is a skull. Anyone else ever run into deathfeet?
3) "sachem" as in "turned out the sachem had been dead wrong." (page 63) The chief of a tribe or confederation. Interesting.
4) "ruth" as in "where is your ruth?" (page 165) sympathy, compassion. Dang. My bet had been a typo for truth.
5) "tua mae" as in "Hear a tua mae." (page 196) Portuguese for "your mother." OK. It fits in with the book's theme and era.
Regardless of quibbles, I'm glad I read it.
