Mercy Among the Children: A Novel
Transpose Thomas Hardy'sJude the Obscureto New  Brunswick's rugged Miramichi River. Surround Job with loose fists, malicious  boots, and cold, gallon wine. Invite the Macbeths over for drinks. Add a lame  dog named Scupper Pit and you've got the raw ingredients of David Adams  Richards'sMercy Among the Children. Set in an isolated, wind-besieged  house with bullet holes in the tarpaper walls, Richards's novel wonders-- pointedly, beautifully--whether goodness is merely a luxury.At the age of 12, having borne more suffering in his child's body than any adult  should endure, Sydney Henderson vows never to harm another human soul. Turning  his back on the violent alcoholism of his upbringing, self-educated Sydney wins  the honest respect of the beautiful Elly and the children they bear. Honest  respect, however, is rarely a match for fear and base human opportunism.  Manipulated, attacked, and abused by a small community eager for a scapegoat,  Sydney loses his job, the health of his wife, and, most importantly, the respect  of his son Lyle. "There is no worse flaw in man's character," Richards knows,  "than that of wanting to belong."The superb, controlled, and unapologeticMercy Among the Childrenis  nothing less than an inquiry into human strength. Richards uses the crack of  ribs on a frigid night to remind us of the opportunistic populism of much so- called morality.Mercy, which shared Canada's premier fiction award, the  Giller Prize, with Michael Ondaatje'sAnil's Ghost, combines the  hound dog's attention to locale of fellow Maritimer Alistair MacLeod with the  quotidian insight of countryman Timothy Findley'sThe Wars, especially  its reminder that the emotions behind war also drive fights over who should  scrub the dinner dishes.--Darryl Whetter--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.