Canada Books

The Last Safe House is a fictional story with non-fiction stories in it. It tells about people in slavery during the mid eighteen hundreds. I recommend this book for kids 7 years old and up. They will enjoy the excitement of the story while learning about all the great African-Americans. I would give this book a four and a quarter stars. I think that you will have a good time with this book.

The last safe house is a great book. It shows the trails of a runnaway slave and how it does't matter whats your color you are.People are not always friends but really know.

The year is 1856. Twelve year old Johanna Reid lives in Saint Catharines, Ontario, a small town on the border of the U.S. and Canada. Eleven year old Eliza Jackson is escaping slavery in Virginia with her mother and older brother, Ben. Along the way, Eliza's mother is captured, and Eliza and Ben are separated. Eliza's journey brings her to the Reid home. At first, Johanna resents Eliza. But as she hears Eliza's story, she becames aware of the horrors that slaves face. Included in this book are activties and tidbits of historical information. THE LAST SAFE HOUSE brings the pre-Civil War period to life through an engaging story of two young girls.

Wow, does it make for persuasive argument if I just say this book is good? No, but Barbara Greenwood's "The Last Safe House"" is a must for anyone interested in the topics of slavery, underground railroad or 19th century history, (America or Canada).

What makes this book so special is that it is so much more that just a young adult novel. Yes, there is a fictional story being told here, but mixed into the fictional story are non-fictional side bar stories. So for example when the story starts to tell of a nefarious slave catcher, the author stops the fiction and starts giving us a real background of slave catchers and how they operated. Basically the footnotes for her story become part of the story. And believe me it is not distracting at all. It's almost like Barbara Greenwood is sitting us next to a fire and telling us the story and pausing every once in a while to more fully explain some things.

I also loved Heather Collins's illustrations. We are not talking the fine art you occasionally see in juvenile books, but we are talking very functional drawings that not only add to the story but to our general understanding. I would love to have a poster size picture of her drawing of "A Cotton Plantation."

In addition to the great design of this book, there are some story details that are often skipped over in many other similar type books. First off, she tell the story that slaves were still not completely free even if they made it to Canada. Also while Canada may have been the land of the free, it was not completely free of prejudice.

I collect books about the underground railroad as a hobby. And Barbara Greenwood's "The Last Safe House will be one of my most recommenced reads.

Snip, snap, snout, my tale is told out . . . . :-)

The Last Safe House is a blend of good research, good writing, enjoyable illustrations and activities to make the subject come alive for children. Greenwood spins a simple central tale of an escaped slave family and one of the families who helps them reach freedom, and uses this story as a springboard to a larger picture - the history of black slaves in America, the hero(ines) of the Underground Railroad, the whole question of justice and prejudice. Greenwood does not sugar-coat the issues or her characters - her protagonists are real children, who sulk, bicker and wish to be popular just like children do in every age. There's also a delightful lack of smugness about the presentation - this isn't a 'look at the wonderful white family helping out the poor black refugees' story, or even a 'look at the wonderful Canadians saving people from the terrible Americans' story - it's a book that examines a huge and complex issue in childsize pieces, in a sensitive yet sensible manner.

In my opinion, this book is award-winning material...it has solid worth, and the illustrations and activities combine with the adventure in the story to produce a captivating whole (for children and adults alike). Bravo to Greenwood and Collins!

"THE LESSER BLESSED is easily one of the most truthful, painful, powerful novels I've ever read."

-Joseph Bruchac

Women, like men, want to have a comfortable lifestyle, an attractive partner, and loving friends. What gets in the way of that is women's ideas that they can not date like men, can not work competitively like men, and must be the moral police to themselves and their friends.

Finally a book that tells the TRUTH about women and dispels the myth of female moral superioriy. This book doesn't trash women, but shows how myths harm both men and women. Don't waste your time on PURE [JUNK] such as "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus," Beg, borrow or steal this book!

Finally a book that tells the TRUTH about women and dispels the myth of female moral superioriy. This book doesn't trash women, but shows how myths harm both men and women. Don't waste your time on ... "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus," ...[Get] this book!

book is great, articulates aspects of female reality with surgical precision. I could go on and on, but I only want to say the book is excellent.

This well-written book provdes some amusing insights in female-female relationships, which most women would prefer to deny. Fillion's use anecdote to illustrate a series of broad points is funny and entertaining. A very enjoyable (and cringe inducing) read.

Mr.Cederberg brings his experiences to life as you read this book.A very vivid tale as Cederberg shares blood,sweat and tears,in the Italian theatre of World War Two.

The book is a novelization of Mr. Cederberg's experiances in Italy during the second World War. I couldn't put it down, I kept imagining myself there. A fantastic book. I hope this is not Mr. Cerderberg's last.

This book is not about warfare by the usual rules, of people being nice as seen in "Saving Private Ryan." It may even upset some folks. But, it is like the stories sometimes told by combat veterans in the Legion Halls after they've had a few beers, are feeling relaxed and are with someone they trust.

It is a story about soldiers who were fiercely proud to be Canadians. Americans were fighting for grand ideas such as "saving the world for democracy" and the Four Freedoms of Norman Rockwell. Canadians were there to do a job. They did it, with kindness, compassion and brutality as the occasion required. Sgt. Cederberg never brags about being Canadian; it was tacitly assumed that if one had to ask, they couldn't understand even if it was explained to them.

Read this, and you'll understand why Americans described Canadian soldiers "going about their job like hockey players."

They are like the Australians and Israelis, known for having an incredible espirit de corps. Americans are great for show, such as Patton insisting that all American troops wear ties and show proper respect for officers. One American mucky-muck, appalled by the easy-going attitude, remarked to a Canadian officer, "Your troops don't seem to have much discipline, such as saluting officers." In reply he was told, "Well, when a salute is needed I wave at them, and they generally wave back." So much for formal procedures. But, when it came to fighting, they were unsurpassed.

The US has a formal definition of a country, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, Salute to the Flag, and a national anthem which is played more than Coca Cola commercials. Canadians are less formal, but no less proud of their country. It's called pride.

In another story, Cederberg tells of the Germans firing propaganda leaflets which showed a naked woman sitting on the edge of a bed, while a soldier without his pants is getting ready to take off his shirt. The message was that while British troops were in Italy, others were having fun in England. "That a Canadian?" one of the men asked Cederberg, who replied, "It can't be, the guy's wearing a tie."

Don't ever mistake the Canadians for the British. As Cederberg writes, "I went out that afternoon with Albert and Alex-Joe, drank six pints of mild and bitters and threw up twice (once after punching out a Scottish corporal who had insisted we were a disgrace to British arms).

"He had it coming," said Alex-Joe. "because we aren't even British, we're Canadians."

Time and again, that spirit and typically Canadian humor shows through. So does the grim determination to get the job done. When stationed near an Italian town, they were warned that lone Allied soldiers were sometimes attacked by die-hard fascist youths. Sure enough, a Canadian was knifed in the neck. When his buddies couldn't find his attackers, they went back to camp.

A few minutes later, the Canadians began a mortar barrage on the town. Officers tried to stop it, and were gently restrained. Once they learned the reason for the barrage, they joined the cover-up to protect their men. When the Italian police came to investigate, every weapon was spotless with no sign of recent use. They left, empty handed. The Italians buried their nine (or 34) dead (depending on whose version was accepted). There were no further assaults on Canadians.

Wonderful book, wonderful story. Rest assured, Spielberg will never make a movie of it. It's too good, and too real.

The Long Road Home is the fascinating, if somewhat racy, account of Fred Cederberg's travels from his home in Canada to the war in Italy. Cederberg spares few details of the courage and the horror of war, and shows how love and lust often bloomed among the destroyed buildings and shattered souls. Cederberg's memoir is first-hand and first-rate, a must-read for anyone interested in seeing how our boys fared in the forgotten war in Italy.

This book ranks with the other great classic memoirs of World War II: The Forgotten Soldier, If You Survive, The Other Side of Time, The Road to Huertgen, and the greatest, Those Devils in Baggy Pants. Cederberg writes in a manner that vividly describes the force and horror of war, painting images in the mind that are not easily forgotten. An excellent read!

Poorly prepared, two friends, and their half-indian manservant "George", decide to travel deep in to the interior of Labrador. The hardship they endure and the hard choices they make are a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. This book gives great insight into what life was like in eastern Canada at the turn of this century.

A deeply moving misadventure. In getting lost, these three men discovered the soul of Labrador as well as the true meaning of friendship and survival. This book is a classic.

I have read this book several times, and would recomend it to anyone that enjoys an adventure story. I enjoy it even more than most as Leonidas Hubbard was my grandfathers first cousin.This book has been almost required reading in our family,(Hubbard).I hope the publisher will reprint it as we have many family members looking for a copy of the book.

I have read a lot of teen adventure books. I recently read this one while I was on a rugged boys canoe camp trip. We went on a 7 week trip with 12 men to labrador. I purchased this book because it was nonfiction and it was saying how these 3 brave, adventurous men took a trip similar to the area i'll be going to. It talked about how mothernature just (threre's really no word for it but...)Destroys these people and they fight back with courage and hope in succeeding this raw adventure. The three in progress of there adventure take care of eachother and keep eachother alive nad in this doing they become better than great friends almost brothers. I really don't want to ruin the book for you, but i suggest so strongly that you get a copy of this book, and oh yea the beginning of the book really is boring because it tells you of how they got to labrador in 1902 (they didn't have cars).

I cannot say enough about the content and the form of this book. It beautifully informs the reader not only of the enthusiasm of two would-be wilderness pioneers, but also of the errors they did not know they had made along the way to a tragic end. I get the feeling that the author, who wrote the book (according to the introduction) as a tribute to his lost mate, never overlooks or overplays any of the events that took place in the then-unchartered terrain of eastern Laborador. The author also makes plain that the voyage ended his youthful naivete by teaching him the necessity of respecting the natural world and of remembering our loves who slowly but surely disappear from our lives.

In short, Lure Of the Laborador Wild, despite its drab title, is an engrossing work. It is quiet, clearly written and, in a matter-of-fact way, terrifying. It towers far above all other nonfiction adventure books I have read over the past ten years.

Much has been accomplished in this book. Dave Halsey not only traveled from one end of Canada to the other, but he lived with the Indians for a few months during 40-below degree winter season. He shares his experiences in both the hot and frigid, both the rapid and inch-by-inch travel. He has also been through inspiring and mind-blowing experiences. Plus, this book is wonderful for nature admirers and outdoor campers & hikers alike.

I have read David Halsey's Magnetic North repeated times for it's pure display of passion and adventure. Halsey was a man both before and beyond his time. He knew the importance of keeping his expedition a journey by primitive means, it was important to himself. His passing is a tragic tale, but not unlike many other great explorers and adventure writers of the 19th and 20th century. Within the pages of his account, there is more than a story. There is a compassionate soul bound to the wilderness, paddling his way through waters that had not been traversed by a white man, and a grievous attempt to return to modern society. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever dared to dream, not of greatness, but of a life lived in the wild to satisfy a yearning heart.

A great book. It wasn't long enough is the only complaint, and that's if you force me to complain.

This is a great yet tragic story about a man/boy who was meant to be in the woods. The book is, as you can guess, a trek across Canada by foot, canoe, and dogsled. Those that like the outdoors and wonder what the world was like before cell phones, pavement, and the flood of civilization need to go no futher than this work. The beauty is that this trek happened in the late 70s.

This book, from cover to cover, makes you yearn to be out in the wild and to wish you were there, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel (well some of it. The near dying stuff is best left alone). The wilds of Canada call to you as you turn each page, realizing that these travels are really not that far removed from the US/Canada border.

One gets a great perspective in reading this book through the words of Halsey and with the notes of Diana Landau, who does a marvellous job walking us through the rough parts of the story that were not completed before David's death. In fact, it could be argued that the reader gets a more complete picture in this, essentially a 2 author affair, than if only Halsey would have done it.

Truly Halsey is a man who was born to be in the outdoors and it is a shame that he did not remain in one of the nooks or crannies that he had crossed on the way. While there was a sense of inexperience in both travellers, it's hard to not feel for them and see their learning as the trip wound on.

The book is out of print, so it will be hard to come by. But if you can find it, do so.

Dave had a dream - and set out to live his dream. The book presents an excellent account of his trek across the Great White North. It makes you feel like you are living, breathing and feeling it with him. What a tragedy that he wasn't able to do more. He had so much to give and wanted little in return. An excellent account in survival and a lesson in human nature. Highly recommend!

This is a marvelous adventure story with a tragic aftermath. David Halsey was 21 years old when he set out to cross Canada's remote wilderness by foot, canoe, and dog sled, a 4000 mile journey that would take him several years to complete. For most of the trip, he was accompanied by a friend and a dog named Coy, who wandered into Halsey's wilderness camp in British Columbia one night, and thereafter became a permanent member of the expedition. Diana Landau did a wonderful job editing this book, which was no small task considering its author died in his 20's several years previous to her launching into the project. David Halsey was gifted with a pen however, and left behind enough raw material in journal notes and reflections that Landua could put together a cohesive reminiscence of his fantastic journey. This is one of those books that will remain with you always. Read it -you won't be disappointed.

The story is about a boy named jeremy.Who has to cope with a terrible situation.The sickness of his father and the death of his father too.He has to care for his mom and sister sarah.Ha meets a girl named Tess medford.She too has lost a loved one.The friend ship with Tess grows and before he knows it they are friends.It is a great book for childern for 9-13 to read.

This is a book of a family coping with the passing of their father from cancer. I read this book just a year after my own father had passed away from cancer; I was 10 at the time. This book has had such an impact on me that today, 12 years later, just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I read this book from cover to cover, as I hope you will.

I was assighned to read this book for school reasons a few years ago and I absolutly fell in love with it. This story is about a boy who has to endure the pain of whatching his father slowly die of cancer. They were best buds, watched birds and hung out like best freinds, but for past years he has to whatch his father die, then has to deal with the aftermath of his actual death. He has to deal with people all around him, teacher friends ect., pittying him. He finally begins to see light again when he meets a new friend, a person that was too "weird" before, but until his father pointed her out before his death, he begins to get to know her- teresa, and how alike they really are, and how well they get along.
This story did make me shed tears- and no it wasnt pms :), and I thoroughly LOVED it, I bought it after reading it, and read it all the time, I recomend this book to anyone who wants a great heartfelt story, that will trigger your every emotion, and deeply touch your heart. Jean little, the author of many many great books, has created a wonderfull classic, that everyone will love. As most books have an occaisonal, or many, dull parts, This masterpeice- the winner of the canadian library association for children award, has no part that is meaningless or dull whatsoever, it soothes those who have felt the pain of death of a loved one, and gives a clear message to those who havent- I hope you read this novel, I did- loved it and its - in my oppinion- A CLASSIC

This is a remarkable book, and I highly recommend it. The author, Jean Little, gives thoughtful attention to original and engaging characterization, and writes with true empathy.

She gives an authentic portrayal of the inner life of a sensitive and struggling boy as he experiences his father's illness and eventual death from cancer. I cannot praise Ms. Little enough for her luminously realized characters, and the special complexity of Jeremy's authentic range of emotion. This is a book of emotional wisdom and personal growth that is carefully chronicled with insight and warmth. It is fully heartbreaking, and equally instructive and enlightening.

--A wonderful achievement and a rich, rich contribution to Young Adult literature.

This is a story of a boy copeing with terrible situation.The sickness and death of his father.While trying to cope with this and take care of his mother and sister.then he meets someone who has also lost a loved one.I loved this book

This book is set up really well and provides space for someone to record when and where they found the different species included in the guide. The photographs are nice and very helpful. If your looking for a guide with good pictures and not much text this is a good guide to buy. If you need more detailed descriptions and information I'd suggest you buy the peterson guide.

This book is a great picture identification guide with a lot of clear descriptions of subjects and their habitat. It has a place beside each picture to keep track of when and where you saw each subject making you want to find more and more of the featured subjects. It covers from seaweeds to sharks and everything in between. It shows all the ocean life you are likely to find as a diver, snorkeler or beach comber.

There are many reason why people take up scuba diving and those who do come from all countries and all social backgrounds. Having taken up the sport, there are those decide to specialise in; Teaching, shipwrecks, cave diving, photography, video, technical diving and so forth. In fact, there is no other sport on earth which offers such a diversity of different interests within that single activity.

Having learned to dive and having leaned towards a specific aspect, however, there is one single interest which continues to bind all divers together. That interest is the marine life which divers encounter wherever they go.

Neither sky divers, pot-holers nor mountaineers get as close to a whole new range of creatures as scuba divers do - on each and every dive. Those creatures may be static (fixed) and yet still classed as animal, they may be free swimming, shy, hard to find or easy to pick up. And, if those creatures are found in the North Atlantic between Canada and New England, they are also found in this book.

Marine Life of the North Atlantic is a paper-back book measuring 9" x 6" (23cm x 15cm) containing 272 pages of solid information on marine life from Algae to the Spiny Lumpsucker fish. Each species is portrayed by colour photography (often more than once) with details of it's Latin name, common name, identification (description) habitat, range and comments. Alongside each photo is also space for the owner of the book to note down each personal sighting and add notes etc.

In short, if ever you are diving in the area covered by this book and are interested in what you may see underwater, then this book is an essential addition to your kit bag and is one which will allow you to note each sighting as your diving progresses.

Please note, the pages of this book are not waterproof and easily stick together when damp. Otherwise, an excellent product.

NM

This book has many outstanding pictures. This book is a great picture identification guide with a lot of clear descriptions of subjects and their habitat. It has a place beside each picture to keep track of when and where you saw each subject making you want to find more and more of the featured subjects. It covers from seaweeds to sharks and everything in between. It shows all the ocean life you are likely to find as a diver, snorkeler or beach comber.

I bought this book during a trip to the Gulf of Maine, and found it to be an extremely useful guide to the invertebrates, vertebrates, and algae of the NE coast of North America.

Photos in the field guide are composed well and show detail needed to figure out what you are looking at. Each photo in the book is accompanied by a brief summary of identifying characteristics of the organism itself, a description of habitats where they are likely to be seen, the geographic range for the organism, and brief comments that will help you look in the right kinds of places to see things.

Though not a comprehensive guide to marine life of the region, this book provides a great introduction to marine biota. The author even provides room in the book for you to write down where and when you saw each entry. There is also room for brief comments.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you are planning a trip to New England or the Maritime Provinces.

Good stuff!

In honest, unpretentious and clean prose leavened with dry humor, Smith tells an engrossing and upbeat story. With tantalizing recipes and charming photographs Mendel's Children has something of the character of a family scrapbook.

Its depth comes from Smith's formidable ability to breathe life into the time worn stories and people that preceeded her. In this her book shares the light story-telling charms of her fellow prairie author, Garrison Keillor. But in the serious and poignant moments that balance the humor, Smith's touch could be compared to Gay Talese in Unto the Sons.

Cherie Smith investigates the past with freshness, insight, and humor, but entirely without pretense. Saints and sinners, Mendel's Children have one thing in common: they are folks you would have enjoyed meeting.

No historian or general reader will doubt the authenticity of her portrayal of life in small Canadian towns or regret coming across such a work

Written with such storytelling skill, with such honest and compassionate clarity, that the reader turns page after page with growing fascination.

I found this book to be confusing at times. And I am a great fan of Morrison's work and acknowledge that she is a brilliant writer. The book's concept is stunning in its objective, but at times, I felt lost in the story because of the writing style.

In this short, lyrical and gripping novel, Tony Morrison has undertaken, once again, to explore her favorite subject: the evils of slavery. Written in prose so lovely and mesmerizing that it reminded me of her "Sula", also a short novel, published thirty-five years ago, "A Mercy" was a great joy to read.

Jacob Vaark, a Dutch-born farmer and trader, and Rebekka, his English wife own a tobacco plantation. Even though Jacob owned a few slaves, he did so only as a necessity to run his homestead. Jacob is sympathetic towards orphans and waifs because he himself was parentless at a young age, and had to fend for himself on the streets running small errands.

At the heart of the novel is an act of mercy. When Jacob Vaark travels to Maryland to collect debt from a tobacco plantaion owner named Senor D'Ortega, he finds out that Senor is broke and has no money to pay off the debt. Senor offers Jacob a thin black girl named Florens, a daughter of one of his slaves, as a partial payment of the debt. Florens is smart, and she can read and write also. Florens' mother senses that Jacob is more kind-hearted than her master, and so pleads with Senor to give Florens to Jacob. Her hope is that Florens would have a better life in Jacob's estate. Florens's mother considers this an act of mercy, but the irony is that Florence considers it abandonment.

Several sympathetic characters make the novel interesting and hold a reader's attention. Lina (Messalina), a native American, was sold to Jacob by the Presbytarians who had rescued and saved her. Sorrow, a sea captain's daughter, survives a ship wreck, but ends up in Jacob's plantation as a slave. Willard and Scully are indentured servants who are sent to work at Jacob's plantation by their contract holders. A young black man, a blacksmith, arrives to make an iron gate for Jacob's new house. He is not a slave, but a free man. This man is also knowledgeable about medicinal herbs. Florens falls in love with him.

In this novel Toni Morrison has found her ability to write simple, unadorned and lyrical prose that she mysteriously lost when she wrote "Paradise": "A frightened, long-necked child who did not speak for weeks but when she did, her light, singsong voice was lovely to hear. Some how, some way, the child assuaged the tiny yet eternal yearning for the home Lina once knew, where everyone had anything, and no one had everything."

Reading this novel was an intense, deeply moving, and satisfying experience. Even though the novel is short, it is bright, deep and weighty.

Like many Americans, I was first introduced to the work of Toni Morrison during my freshman year of college, when I read THE BLUEST EYE as part of a literature survey course. I moved on to several more of her books --- BELOVED, SONG OF SOLOMON, TAR BABY --- in English and women's studies courses, and have read all her other novels published since, continuing to marvel at her penetrating insights into race, sex and American history. THE BLUEST EYE, her debut, continues to be the one most often taught in college, probably because it's her shortest and most accessible. That is, until now.

Morrison's new book, A MERCY, is perhaps the perfect introduction to this Nobel Prize-winning author's work, offering readers, in fewer than 175 pages, a glimpse into her powerful literary style and keen insights into issues of race, violence, sex, history, identity and community that also demonstrates her brilliance and maturity as a writer.

The America that Morrison shows readers in A MERCY is one in its infancy, one in which "states" were hardly united, when differences of background, religion and ideology marked provincial boundaries as stark as any political border. Set in the 1680s and 1690s, it portrays a region in search of an identity, one in which the definitions of "free" and "slave" are both nebulous and shifting.

At the center of the novel is the household of Jacob Vaark. Vaark, like almost everyone in the colony, is an immigrant, a businessman who lives somewhere in the North but enters into slaveholding --- and the social grasping that seems to accompany it --- almost by accident. He obtains his first slave --- a Native American woman named Lina, whose village has been destroyed by smallpox and whose reputation has been destroyed after a rape --- to be company for his mail-order wife, Rebekka. Eventually, the two women, who develop a close friendship, are joined by another, deeply troubled slave known only as Sorrow.

Finally, the object of the "mercy" of the novel's title is Florens, bought for the Vaark household as a young girl at the entreaty of her mother. As Vaark travels on business and, later, as he becomes obsessed with building a grand home, the women form a family of sorts. After Vaark's death and Rebekka's subsequent illness, however, they discover just how fragile their bonds are, how fragmented their identities.

Vaark's household is something of a microcosm of the nascent country. Besides demonstrating the splintered identities of various American ethnic groups (and even of some individuals), the stories that make up the novel illustrate starkly and powerfully the legacy of violence, betrayal and inhumanity that is part of our nation's heritage. In particular, Morrison illustrates starkly and powerfully the ways in which slavery, in all its forms, robs people of their essential humanity and promotes the kind of "wilderness" that leads to violence, shame and despair.

Readers will come away from A MERCY feeling that they understand not only Morrison's literary techniques but also a little more about American history, marveling that out of these fragmented, isolated, brutal pieces came anything resembling unity.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Finally a novel that lives up to the publisher's hype. So much is promised with each new book, but this is truly a fine work. I am unable to judge whether this is great literature, but it satisfied me on many levels. That is a rare occurrence for a piece of writing. I have given five stars to prior reviews, but this is the finest writing that I have yet reviewed for amazon.

The novel reads quickly. You could finish it in a few hours if you were so inclined. I preferred to slow down and savor the contents. I will return this book again, after giving it a season on my shelf. It will never go to the library donation pile in my lifetime! Although I may be a bibliophile, in the extreme I would preserve only a few (hundred) books. This will be one of them.

Morrison uses shifting points of view to bring this short novel to life. The story unfolds through the eyes of each major character, although only one, Florens, speaks in the first person. Her voice is entirely in a vernacular, lacking conventional punctuation and sentence structure. The first few pages are moderately difficult to understand, but it becomes steadily more intelligible as you progress. The varied points of view remind me of The Sound and the Fury, especially in the opening chapter. But Florens is no Benjy, and Morrison's narrative bears only a superficial resemblance to Faulkner's. Although there is plenty of sorrow, and broken relationships all around, there is not a tone of hopeless cynicism.

I went back to read the first chapter several times, discovering more each time. You cannot understand some things at first. For example: "If a pea hen refuses to brood I read it quickly and sure enough that night I see a minha mae standing hand in hand with her little boy, my shoes jamming the pocket of her apron." This is a pivotal moment, but I did not recognize it as such on a first read. Sometimes I don't care for writers who show things early, and explain them later. Morrison is such a good writer that I didn't mind at all. I don't think that you will mind either.

I do not call Morrison a feminist or black writer. I believe those words will put unreasonable limits on how I might think about her work. Her writing reaches beyond the narrow concerns of our present day, to universal truths. She does not gloss over the brutalities and prejudices of slavery, or the lot of women in the 17th century. Far from it. But there are even larger things at stake here. In A Mercy I met myself where I least expected. I recognized myself in Florens, in Lina, in Jacob and even in Sorrow. To see yourself in another is the beginning of love. To give that gift to a reader is a great achievement.

Toni Morrison has once again created a work of gorgeous, delicate beauty. A Mercy is told from the perspective of a new World farmer in 1690, Jacob Vaark, his wife, and their slaves and indentured workers.

Each of them has in some way been set adrift at some time in their lives. There is a sense that a good community has been built among them, in a way. But it is really just a thin illusion, since Jacob's death displays all too well the dependence on his mercy. Women, women of color, poor men, all of them are powerless. And the point of the book is spelled out well with a commentary about the kinds of slavery we set for ourselves.

This is a wonderful book that sets one to thinking about the consequences of acts of mercy and the sometimes hidden motives behind those acts. Dr. Morrison continues to write beautiful books that nonetheless make one take a hard look at both history and the human heart.