Mercy

★★★★★★★★½☆ 8.5/10

304 pages

What’s it about?

This novel is made up of a series of interconnected stories. The book opens in the early 1970s. Eddie and Ivan are the best of friends. Their relationship is based on a mutual desire to push boundaries. When Eddie overdoses on heroin one night in New York, Ivan gets him to the emergency room and then chooses to leave him. This decision will haunt many characters that we meet in the pages of this book.

What did it make me think about?

Love, regret, and mercy.

Should I read it?

I have never read anything by Joan Silber, but I am a big fan of interconnected stories. This was a beautiful little book. More thoughtful than action-packed. She demonstrates how this one incident had a ripple effect on these characters, which was an interesting idea. Similar to throwing a pebble into the water and watching how it redistributes. If you like contemplative books, then you will enjoy this novel.

A passage I marked

"He thought about the degree of luck he'd had. In the glories of his reckless youth, no epidemic like AIDS had ravaged the users of IV drugs. What a world they'd occupied, callous and innocent."