This next book was our March book club book. This isn’t one I would have picked myself – I don’t love Jodi Picoult’s approach to writing, but what I love about book club is that it encourages me to try books I would not have picked up otherwise. I could easily hang out in one genre were it not for book club or Book of the Month, so I’m grateful I have resources pointing me back to the things I “don’t like”, saying “try again”.
Book 11:
Mercy
by Jodi Picoult
Genre:
Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Legal Story
Published:
1996
Synopsis According to Mandi:
Without spoilers, Mercy is about a man, Jamie, who confesses to his cousin, Cam, a police chief of a small town in Massachusetts, that he killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy. The book jumps into a murder trial while exploring the depths of love, loyalty and morality amongst the obvious plot, but also intertwined in several smaller, co-existing stories. It examines the lines of emotions and ethics – what’s too far? What’s not far enough?
Favorite Quote:
I once heard someone on a bus say that this guy had gotten under her skin. And it struck me as a remarkable thought – that someone would affect you so deeply they’d always be a part of you.
― Jodi Picoult, Mercy
Awards (based upon my brief research):
None noted.
Pages:
400
My Overall Rating:
2.5 – Published in 1996, this book was born into a world where Kevorkian was actively practicing physician assisted suicides despite the media’s attention. This controversial topic is not one that gets me jazzed, but I was still intrigued as to how the plot would play out. I was disappointed that much of the book was filled with other, co-existing stories that weren’t given enouch attention to matter and didn’t affect the murder trial I’d anticipated reading about. I think Picoult could have written the same plot with half the amount of pages and engaged readers with a deeper connection by doing so, honing in on the murder trial and cutting out the superfluous stories.
