Mercy Street
I used to have #FictionIsRelevant in my bio because, well, even something wildly “made up” reflects real life. So how appropriate (nay, #Relevant) that my library copy of Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh became available this week. The novel is about abortion (but like any good novel, is about so much more); the protagonist works at a clinic and another character is a creepy protestor and I think you get the gist. I whipped right through it.
Mercy Street is a great read, but what I want to write about is actually “reviews.” The reason this is on my mind is because yesterday I shared in my stories the response of someone who read Meg Mason’s Sorrow & Bliss after seeing me post about it. (If you didn’t’ see it, this was her message: “Omg. I just read it in one day. Ignoring my children and my house and eating Cheezits.”) She loved it. The book was posted about in one of our town’s Facebook groups. At least one respondent had a very opposite response to the book. Someone else messaged me and asked how sad the book actually is because that really, really is not what she wants in a book.
We already know this, but a positive review from one person doesn’t mean everyone’s going to respond the same way. Doy. Which is why I was so intrigued by Richard Russo’s review of Mercy Street in the NYT back in February. “…Far from being depressing, the book is wonderfully entertaining, boasting a large, varied cast of vividly drawn characters whose company readers will find deeply rewarding, in no small part because lurking in their shadows is the devastatingly wry humor of their creator.” Interestingly, I didn’t find the book particularly “entertaining” or humorous. I found it quite bleak. Which, for me, is definitely not a bad thing. If I were officially “reviewing” Mercy Street, maybe I would make it “engaging” instead of “entertaining” and “clever observations” instead of “wry humor.”
This, of course, is the beauty of fiction, even when it is about very real (and relevant!) issues, like Mercy Street is. Fiction allows us to, in the words of a character from one of my very favorite novels, “Make of that what you will.” (Who knows the book?!) #RealLife
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