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Book Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

cover for The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave  (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Little, Brown, and Company, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-0316529259

Available: Hardcover, CD,  Audible audiobook, Kindle edition

 

Sometimes there is a very fine line between historical fiction and horror, and that is the case with Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies, a story more chilling than the remote fishing village where it takes place. In 1617, a freak storm at sea killed nearly every man in the village, leaving the women, mostly widows, to take on many of the men’s previous roles, such as fishing, to prevent their starvation and ensure their survival during a long, cold season where the ground was so frozen they couldn’t even dig graves for their husbands. When a commissioner chosen for his skill as a witch hunter arrived, he was assigned to root out the indigenous people, the Sami, who the Christian governor, or lensmann, believed were sorcerers. However, his attempts to govern the women in the village were not entirely successful, and the women who refused to give up their independence were accused and convicted of causing the storm that killed their husbands through witchcraft, then burned.

Past the initial horrific event of the storm, this is a compelling story of women trying to stay alive and survive their grief, most working together even when there are divisions due to personality and beliefs. Those divisions become a chasm too far to cross when a minister, and then the commissioner, arrive to re-establish cultural and religious norms.

Maren, a capable young woman navigating the increasing conflict between her mother and her Sami sister-in-law, and Ursa, the commissioner’s timid, young wife, are the point of view characters, and their awkward relationship is important to both the plot and character development. Ursa is in the difficult position of wanting to belong and help the women who have been helping her, especially Maren, while her husband is tearing the community apart, Maren and Ursa have developed affection for each other, despite Ursa’s complicity in her husband’s horrifying persecution and execution of .Maren’s friend Kirsten and Maren herself. The hysterical accusation and brutal descriptions of torture and execution, as brief as they are, is unbelievably difficult to read as we see and feel it through Ursa’s and Maren’s individual experiences. The description of the village women encouraging a woman about to burn to breathe in the smoke so she’ll suffocate to death before she burns is heartbreaking.

According to Hargrave, historically. fifty-two women were convicted and burned to death in these witch trials. Today women may not be facing accusations of illegally using witchcraft to maliciously attack the men in control, but the sense of dread I felt in reading The Mercies suggests that there is an agenda out there premised on controlling women’s actions, thoughts, and feelings, hasn’t gone away.

 

Contains: sexual assault, torture, violence, domestic abuse, murder, miscarriage, sexual situations, references to genocide, graphic descriptions of public execution.

Posted on September 19, 2020 by , Reply

Musings: The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.

Minotaur Books, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1250228956

Available: Pre-order, hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

I’m not sure what genre exactly this book fits. As a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, it by rights should be in the mystery genre. It is solidly grounded in history, although the author notes that not all the dates fit. It might be considered political fiction. But while I wouldn’t call it horror, for me, it was disturbing and terrifying. The plot concerns what is probably the last case Meyer will write for Holmes (he’s written several, starting with the brilliant The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), and begins in 1905, with Sherlock’s older brother, Mycroft, who works for the Foreign Service, approaching him to ask him to determine the authenticity of a document that a woman died to get her hands on. The document? A French translation of what is known today as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-semitic screed that claims that there is a secret cabal of Jews meeting regularly and trying to take over the world. The first version of this document was published in the years just before the story takes place, and in the novel, its origins and authenticity are unknown.

On a personal level, I cannot even begin to tell you how it made me feel to read of fictional characters I have known and loved since I was a teenager discuss whether this could be authentic. (spoilers start here) Of course, Sherlock quickly deduces that it is a fraud (because it makes no logical sense that a secret cabal would announce itself) but Mycroft informs him that in fact Jews have been meeting yearly in Basel, Switzerland (this is the Zionist Congress, spearheaded by Theodor Herzl, which is working towards establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine). Could this be related?

Zionism and the historical foundation and location of Israel in Palestine are touchy subjects and Meyer handles them well, sending Holmes and Watson to interview a number of Jews in England who have differing viewpoints, who include Chaim Weizmann, the future first president of Israel, and writer Israel Zangwill, who favors assimilation. Continued discussions between Holmes and Watson, and Watson’s own musings, on the authenticity of the document and the likelihood that Jews might actually be involved in some kind of conspiracy, were enough to make my stomach ache even though they were in agreement before long that the document was a fraud intended to stir people to anti-semitic acts, and well before the friends traveled to Russia to root out the truth firsthand. On reading a passage by Mark Twain, which presumably is supposed to be complimentary, Watson realizes it could be read the opposite way as well, and notes:

Having seen portions of the Protocols, a dark corner of my mind found itself wondering if the Jews were as noble and noteworthy as Twain described them. I confess I have never given Jews much thought… But now, in the stillness of the night… I was mortified to find myself wondering if, despite all logic and probability, there might not be some grain of truth in the Protocols… The scurrilous pages had already begun their insidious work, tunnelling their way into my poor, addled brain.

Of course, history tells us that Holmes and Watson, despite their thrilling and mind-altering adventure here, failed to keep the lies from spreading. It’s quite clear from the author’s repeated statements about lies being accepted as facts and people believing what is most comfortable to believe, especially when they need a scapegoat, that his story has been significantly shaped by the current presidential administration. As a reviewer, I think this made a considerable difference on how Holmesian the story actually was. Holmes rarely made the kinds of deductions he typically does in his stories, or referred to his expertise: he was much more emotional and less creatively resourceful. Watson, of course, is Watson, the faithful chronicler, but he also interjects himself into the narrative more frequently.  The long separation between the two left the relationship somewhat rusty as well.  While still grounded in Holmes’ world, it almost feels like this is less a story of Holmes and Watson and more a warning for us, the readers now…. certainly, a timely one. Meyer is a brilliant writer for carrying the story off. Here, Sherlock discovers, the world is smaller than he thought, and the political is very personal.

I think Meyer’s choice to focus on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was interesting and unusual, and he brought some mostly unknown history and historical figures to light for many readers (I really loved how grounded in history and how vivid and real the setting and historical characters were). But while I recognize the need for the discussions of the possibility that this was an authentic document, I worry that, as with Watson’s thoughts following his experience with the Protocols, readers will instead take the opposite message away from the book.

Contains: references to murder and rape,  threats of violence, anti-semitic remarks.

Posted on October 10, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Grave Digger by Rebecca Bischoff

The Grave Digger  by Rebecca Bischoff

Amberjack Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1948705523

Available: Pre-order, hardcover and Kindle edition

 

It’s 1875 in Circleville, Ohio. Captain Cooper’s mother is ill,  and the doctor has to be paid. Although Cap is not yet thirteen, his father has decided it’s time for him to join him and his partner Lum as a “resurrectionist”, a person who digs up dead bodies in order to sell them to medical schools for dissection. The plan is to dig up the bodies of those who won’t be missed (mostly “colored” people), but the dead don’t appear to be staying dead. Cap’s classmate Jessamyn comes back to life after he touches her, and the next body wakes up while they are actually digging. The secret activities of the grave diggers are out, and they have to cover them up and find other ways to acquire the bodies. Cap is spooked, but his mother’s medical bills still have to be paid, and his father insists this is the only way they can raise the money. Beyond acquiring the bodies, Cap realizes that there is a larger conspiracy at work, involving not just unsavory characters, but also some of the most respected individuals in town. While the newspaper stirs up the town, it is mainly the “colored” people who are affected, and their demands for a cemetery guard are left unanswered. We can all be grateful that this is a middle-grade novel and that, while a book about grave robbing, burying people alive, and human dissection will obviously have some disturbing moments, it doesn’t get gratuitously gruesome.

Racism in Circleville’s general population doesn’t rear its head in overtly violent ways, but in white people’s daily choices and conversations, like the Coopers’ housekeeper’s resentment of and unwillingness to interact with Jardine, an African-American woman who is a friend and hear of Cap’s mother, comments about “those people”, and the choice to zero in on body-snatching the African-Americans in the cemetery.  It intersects with sexism as well, with Jessamyn’s mother feeling that the only choice she has to support her child is sex work (it’s referred to indirectly), and Jardine’s daughter Delphia, after telling Cap of her ambition to be a doctor, bracing herself for the expected comment “but you’re a colored girl!” and laughing when he says “but you’re a girl!” instead (either way, in 1875, ten years after the Civil War ended, she’d be unlikely to get into medical school, but the book treats it like it’s a real possibility– props to Bischoff for that).  It is noticeable (and relevant to the present day) that there are so few consequences for anyone who participated in the grave-robbing scheme and lived to tell about it.  That’s probably realistic, and in a middle-grade novel you want things to turn out for the protagonist, but I think this ending requires a conversation. There is a myth in the Midwest that because the Underground Railroad had a strong presence that there must not have been other race-baced issues (I can’t tell you about Ohio specifically, but it’s definitely the case in Indiana), and this book exposes that.

There are a lot of schools that can’t officially celebrate Halloween (my district doesn’t allow it) but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to celebrate the season. The Grave Digger is a great historical fiction choice with a macabre touch to promote to the right elementary and middle-schoolers at this time of year.  Highly recommended.

Posted on October 4, 2019 by , Reply
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