Everything in Mercy Among the Children stems from this defining incident. After Connie gets up from the fall unscathed, Sydney goes through life in state of almost masochistic passivity and pacifism, in spite of the intolerance and ridicule he faces in his rural New Brunswick community.

Sydney’s choices eventually have consequences for his entire family, particularly his volatile son Lyle, who cannot comprehend his father’s turn-the-other-cheek attitude. When Sydney is implicated in a heinous crime in his Miramichi Valley community, Lyle decides that violence might be a more effective way to clear his family’s name.

Richards has been compared to Tolstoy for the moral questions he raises in this wrenching story. The novel is a compassionate depiction of people who struggle to endure the legacy of abuse, poverty and misfortune they’ve inherited from their parents.

Released to much praise in 2000, Mercy Among the Children was named one of the best books of the year by the Globe and Mail and Ottawa Citizen, and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.”

Other useful links:
the Canada Reads page for Mercy Among the Children

My thoughts:
Before – This book has garnered much critical acclaim. Sometimes this heralds a good book, other times the book doesn’t live up to its hype. We’ll see which one Mercy turns out to be.

But anyway, I’m all geared up and ready to begin, just as soon as I’m finished my current read (Roughing It in the Bush). I’ll be reading The Book of Negroes first, as it is the longest of them, and the only one I currently have in my possession. I’m not sure about the order for the remaining books. Perhaps I’ll read them in diminishing order (or perhaps the order in which they arrive from Chapters…).

Some people on BookCrossing have already “signed up” to read this year’s selection with me, and I imagine we’ll have a lively debate as time advances on toward the March 2-6 broadcast of the debates.

This year, I’m planning to do as much of the blog work as I can in advance, so I’ll only have to do the actual “reviews” as I go, so I’m really hoping to succeed in keeping up and being prepared for all of the debates this year.

The 2009 Canada Reads books are:
Nicholas Campbell: The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Jen Sookfong Lee: Fruit by Brian Francis
Sarah Slean: Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
Anne-Marie Withenshaw: The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
Avi Lewis: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill