Fipster’s Choice

If you’d like to give yourself a beautiful gift for under $25, we recommend A Mercy, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison’s ninth novel.
How a writer can produce such a literary gem in 167 pages is a mystery, and that’s only one of the reasons we love her.
Admittedly, some of her novels are difficult to deconstruct, (think Paradise), yet as soon as you read the first few sentences you will be hooked:  ”Don’t be afraid.  My telling can’t hurt you in spite of what I have done.  You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog’s profile plays in the steam of a kettle.” In this tale of mercy, you will meet four abandoned women on a failing farm in the 17th century.  You will journey with these women through the poetry of Toni Morrison’s words. There is Florens, a young girl abandoned by her mother,  “with hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady.”  Also enslaved on the farm is Lina, whose tribe was annihilated by smallpox, and Sorrow, who “is a bit mongrelized but will work without complaint.”  And lastly, you will empathize with Rebekka, the white mistress, herself a victim of abandonment.  Morrison’s characters are raw to the core, and we experience their enslavement, love, and heartbreak as deeply as they do.  Their stories are told so artistically that when you reach the end, don’t be surprised to find yourself turning to the first page to start all over again.  Check out http://www.amazon.com to see a short video of Toni Morrison discussing her inspiration for the novel.  By the way, the photographer of this wonderful photo of  Toni Morrison is Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.  Check out his website at  http://greenfield-sanders.com.