Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards

Mercy Among the Children (MAtC) won the 2000 Giller Award and yes, it's taken me this long to get to it. Boy, was it worth the wait. Clocking in at 417 pages, this is not a light read with respect to either length or gravity. It spans three generations of Hendersons, an impoverished rural family in Nova Scotia where life is hard and unfair and where people, both with malicious and benign intent, seem bent to destroy that which they cannot understand. Written from Lyle's point-of-view (the grandson), we learn about how an innocent promise made at a young age will go on to affect the lives of not just the Hendersons, but the entire town.

This was a difficult book to read, I'll admit it. The writing is fantastic, the pacing is done very well. By the time I hit the third part ("love"), I was compelled forward by these characters. I rarely stay up late to finish books; even rarer still will I wake up early. Today, I was up at 7am to finish up. No, it wasn't the prosaic brilliance - it was the deep sense of unfairness that permeated the novel. What's so impressive is that, instead of hating these characters that are mean, vicious and utterly selfish - Richards is actually able to elicit pity.

While I do read fiction to escape real life, I don't like it when it's so far removed from it that it loses all credibility (this, above any other reason, is probably why I don't read SciFi or Fantasy).
No one would ever accuse MAtC of being unreal - it's so real, it hurts. I want these people to rise above it all, I want the "bad guys" to get theirs, I want the snobs to be put in their places... but that isn't how it works is it? There are bright spots of redemption, but for the most part MAtC is what life is: bittersweet. I recommend it highly.