Mercy Among the Children

David Adams Richards

2000

Ok so it won the Giller Prize and was selected for Canada Reads, no one is going to argue that this isn’t an exceptionally well-crafted novel. It is. It is so well crafted it’s annoying, in that good type of annoying where you want to playfully shake your finger at David Adams Richards and say “oh you.”

So what’s its deal. Well, if you like Canadian literature highlighting the impoverished Maritimes (78% of all Canadian lit) you are going to love this story. Set in New Brunswick this story follows the Henderson family through unbearable and incredible amounts of strife and hardship. Literally (pun) everyone in town has it out for this family. The worst part is that the reader can see that things are going to get worse for this them even though the family can’t see it coming. And when it gets worse it get’s way worse than you thought it would be! This book over 400 pages long, and these pages are full of information and details. That’s a lot of pain and suffering to take in.

The story weaves throughout the families of this poor New Brunswick town, as they plot against each other and work to screw over the Hendersons who are undeserving of their hardships. What’s nice about the story is that it really highlights how unfair life is; you can work as hard as you want and try to be a good person, but others will still dislike you. In that sense the story is very realistic. But as you get to the end all the coincidences start driving you mad! The good characters are so good, the bad ones are so bad, of course Cynthia’s daughter will get Percy’s heart after she kills him in a snowstorm! If it wasn’t so amazingly artful and well crafted it would be a soap opera.

And then the intertextuality! Lyle Henderson is telling the story, but he starts with his grandfather. He includes details of Cynthia and Mathew’s lives that he wasn’t there to witness, he couldn’t possibly know! But the damn device is used so well because it makes Lyle an unreliable narrator (the best kind!) and so his character descriptions have to be taken with a grain of salt. Percy never cries (bullshit), his mother is a saint (she sounds kind of dumb), everyone is out to get them. It makes Lyle seem paranoid. What’s weird is that every character is so wonderfully well rounded and full of details. It makes the world so full, yet I’m not sure if I believe Lyle! Damn you Richards!!!

But at the end of the day, although it is exceptionally well written and so well thought out I just can’t handle reading a novel full of constant pain. It isn’t my style, I don’t like it. My friend Becky likes these hardcore stories about life, I just can’t handle it. Which is why I give this Giller Prize winning marvelously written novel two and a half lightning bolts. It’s just too much pain!

Reviewed by Meg!