Finished: a mercy (Morrison). A very intense, moving book about a slave girl given by her slave mother to a different owner, hoping to make her life better. The girl, Florens, is so young when it happens, though, she never realizes her mother was trying to make things better for her. She just thinks her mother chose to keep her baby brother over her. The reader might not even realize it until the last few heartbreaking sentences of the book. I'm really glad I read this book by Toni Morrison. I tried three different times to start her big hit, Beloved, and I just couldn't get into the rhythm of it at all. This book grabbed me and didn't let go. It's hard to put into words, but there are just some writers who have that rare gift of keeping you engaged, while showing you the inner thoughts of each character, with well-balanced dialogue and interaction between characters, as well as vivid descriptions of conditions and surroundings. In a mercy, Morrison certainly did all that.

In 1662, Florens is only eight when she's given to Jacob Vaark, a Virginia farmer and trader who accepts her as payment when the sleazy tobacco farm owner who owes him money can't pay. Jacob doesn't trade in human flesh, but when he sees the pleading look on the face of Florens' mother, he takes Florens home thinking she can be of some comfort to his wife who has lost all her children. Jacob has taken in two other "orphans" since his marriage, a native American girl, Lina, and another  slave girl, Sorrow. And, Jacob himself was an orphan as a child, so sympathizes with their circumstances. They become this rather misfit family, even though it's clear that Jacob is "Sir" and his wife is "Mistress". In other words, I'm not at all downplaying that the two slaves are still slaves.

The book is told from the perspective of each of the main characters and you feel for each one of them as you come to understand them and what motivates them. When Jacob dies, and it looks like his wife may die, then Lina (who helps to run the house) comes to realize that she, Sorrow and Florens will have no where to go. There are no heirs to the property, which would be auctioned off and they would all probably be auctioned off as well. The wife survives the illness, and they all stay on, for a time anyway.

A couple of my favorite passages. Sorrow is named Sorrow because of her horrific childhood before she comes to Jacob. She has even created an imaginary Twin who she talks to all the time, so most everyone at the farm thinks she's a little crazy. After they all go through the death of Jacob, and Sorrow has a baby girl of her own, she gives herself a new name: 

Twin was gone, traceless and unmissed by the only person who knew her. Sorrow's wandering stopped too. Now she attended routine duties, organizing them around her infant's needs, impervious to the complaints of others. She had looked into her daughter's eyes; saw in them the gray glisten of a winter sea while a ship sailed by-the-lee. "I am your mother," she said. "My name is Complete."

Gosh I love that! Then, the very last chapter of the book is from the viewpoint of Florens' mother eight years after she gave her up. When the mother had first arrived at her slave owner's farm, she'd been taken to the shed and "broken in" which resulted in the birth of Florens. Her mother could see the slave owner eyeing Florens in that same way as she was getting older, and so to prevent her from that fate, she begged Jacob Vaark to take her as payment. Here's the passage, and from here comes the name of the book:

   You caught Senhor's eye. After the tall man dined and joined Senhor on a walk through the quarters, I was singing at the pump. A song about the green bird fighting then dying when the monkey steals her eggs. I heard their voices and gathered you and your brother to stand in their eyes.
   One chance, I thought. There is no protection but there is difference. You stood there in those shoes and the tall man laughed and said he would take me to close the debt. I knew Senhor would not allow it. I said you. Take you, my daughter. Because I saw the tall man see you as a human child, not pieces of eight. I knelt before him. Hoping for a miracle. He said yes.
   It was not a miracle. Bestowed by  God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human.