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Mercy
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $9.73
Your Save: $ 5.27 ( 35% )
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Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Washington Square Press
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2001-04-03
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Studio: Washington Square Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest of his life when his own cousin Jamie comes to him and confesses outright that he has killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy. Now, a heated murder trial plunges the town into upheaval, and drives a wedge into a contented marriage: Cameron, aiding the prosecution in their case against Jamie, is suddenly at odds with his devoted wife, Allie -- seduced by the idea of a man so in love with his wife that he'd grant all her wishes, even her wish to end her life. And when an inexplicable attraction leads to a shocking betrayal, Allie faces the hardest questions of the heart: when does love cross the line of moral obligation? And what does it mean to truly love another? Praised for her "personal, detail-rich style" (Glamour), Jodi Picoult infuses this page-turning novel with heart, warmth, and startling candor, taking readers on an unforgettable emotional journey.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: I wanted to love this book....
Comment: I am an ardent Picoult fan, and I so wanted to love this book based on the premise and the concept. Also a fan of Diana Galbadon's "Outlander" books, I was looking forward to a contemporary Scottish tale - and JP delivered in the first 3rd of the book. Her descriptions of a modern Scottish village in America - Wheelock, first noted as "Wee Loch" in a letter by the original settler, meaning "small lake" - was spot on. But as the story progressed, I found myself wondering, "Where is she going with this?"
There were several aside stories that remained unexplored - Cam's mother's New Age style is talked about in depth, and then just dropped; the whole war-dream-field thing was talked about several times but didn't ever time into the current story.
Allie was a sucker, plain and simple. While I, as a wife, empathised with the ideas of 60/30 and wishing someone would notice how much you put into the daily work of relationships and love, I also felt like slapping her a couple of times. When she *** SPOILER ALERT *** finds Mia's underthings in Cam's drawer & marks it off as just a laundry fluke, I wanted to scream at this woebegone lady. Your assistant's [...] in your husband's drawer, and you say "if it's soft, I assume it's boxers?" Yeah... No.
Cam. Well. Cam. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to interpret the "letters" as being to Allie or to Mia, but either way, Cam is a supreme jerk. There are so many ways in which I could outline this creep's faults, but I'll stop at saying that if my girlfriend called me and shared a similar story, my first words would not be "garage sale."
Mia. Strange character, JP didn't really elaborate much into her psyche (a big surprise after 19 Minutes & 10th Circle, in which you felt like you were the character during the story). In the end, I had zero sympathy. Her devotion to the cat, Kafka, was an indicator of her personality: unable to commit, unable to even ponder consequences.
All in all, a good story but not in the Picoult Hall of Fame. My gold standard for JP is 19 Minutes, and she's reached it time and again with her wonderful stories - but Mercy wasn't one of them. A mediocre story by a fantastic writer, however, is 1,000x better than a good story from a mediocre writer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: On the fence a little bit still....
Comment: It was a good read because she's a great writer and Picoult makes you see the town, the home, the characters so accuately. She even makes you feel the hurt, the betrayal that the characters do. I wish she would have finished it differently, I wish that the side drama apart from the main issue at hand with the dear man who killed his wife out of mercy...I wish the other punishment would have fit the crime! That bothered me but it was still showed great talent in her writing. I just came away wanting more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book isn't actually about mercy killing
Comment: Although I was a tremendous fan of "My Sister's Keeper", I've been summarily disappointed by all her other books, except for this one. The characters who are realistically flawed, the writing is amazing, and the part about the trial was lovely to read. This isn't a book about mercy killings. It's a book about love. Jamie is condemned for having loved his wife too much, to the point where he was willing to kill her when she selfishly asked, knowing that it would destroy him physically and mentally. Cam, the police chief and star witness, cheats on his doting wife and yet is hailed as the lord of the town. This book brings about original, startling revelations about love that most people would never have thought of. I highly recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Picoult
Comment: I have many (most ) of Jodi Picoult books. I loved the first 2-3 I read. 19 Minutes, My Sister's Keeper and a few others. Mercy was not one of my favorites, nor was Keeping Faith. maybe I am getting tired of her books, but they use to grab me on page one. Both of these books seemed to drag. They also were more predictable than others in her series. It seems like she is researching topics of interest to her and spinning them into books. The discussion of stamata was interesting, but it seemed to occupy too much of the story. Mercy also seemed to drag in spots. I am accustomed to reading her books quickly, hardly waiting to turn the page.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Irritating
Comment: This is the fifth Jodi Picoult's novel I've read and probably will be the last one. I almost put it down because it simply got to my nerves. That Cameron Mc Donald was such a selfish, arrogant and weak man and Allie, his wife, such a pushover, that I just could not stand neither one of them. What irritated me most was the fact that after finding out that he was betraying her, Allie punishes Cam, but then forgives him (a deduction based on the notes Cam writes to Mia, which are on the left page at the beginning of each chapter). A good sequel would be one with Allie, leaving this guy for good, leaving town, overcoming her low self esteem and finding true love with a real man, not with the kind of male characters that Jodi Picoult usually creates, which seem to be very handsome and attractive but extremely stupid and airhead(for reference, see Salem Falls' Jack St. Bride and Second Glance's Ross Wakeman).
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