"Small Mercies" is a Small Miracle

Once again I must thank my friend and deep reader, Pat Abosch, for the recommendation of this outstanding novel by debut writer Eddie Joyce. http://www.eddiejoyce.net/ I realized that I was in for a very special reading experience when I saw that one of my all-time favorite authors, Richard Russo, had written a blurb for the cover. I gather that Russo was a mentor for Joyce. It shows.

What Russo did for the failing mill town of Empire Falls Joyce does for a blue- collar, Irish-Italian enclave in Staten Island, bringing it to vibrant life. His characterizations of both the people and the place took me back to the small mill town of Lee, Massachusetts, where I lived for seventeen years. Joyce captures the cadence of the discussions, the family pow-wows around the kitchen table, the vague resentments between those who stayed in the hood and those who left for the bright lights of the city.

"Small Mercies" is an outstanding example of what I call the post 9/11 genre represented so powerfully by such authors as Don de Lillo ("Falling Man"), Jonathan Safran Foer ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"), or Amy Waldman ("The Submission").

These books are not about the terrorist attacks, per se, but rather, about the ramifications, sometimes on just one person, or on a small group of people. They are about the ripple effects of a single act that repeat and repeat over the years and about the "small mercies" that one must be grateful for in the face of tremendous loss.

When "Small Mercies" opens, it's been ten years since Bobby Amendola, NYFD, disappeared under the rubble of the twin towers. Still, not a day goes by that his mother Gail doesn't step into his childhood room and wonder why. Bobby's widow, Tina, is raising her two kids the best she can with the emotional support of the entire Amendola family and, as is often the case in small towns like this, the entire community. But after years of believing that there wasn't a man alive who could take Bobby's place, Tina has finally met a guy, a widower who understands the aching hole in her heart, who just might be the one.

How will this news affect Tina's relationship with Gail, with Bobby's brothers, with his dad, Michael? Bobby Jr.'s birthday is coming up and there will be the usual over-the-top fanfare at Gail and Michael's house. Tina would like to introduce Wade to the gang but is plagued with trepidation. Wade is a New Yorker, a successful hedge-fund manager, not your typical Staten Island, jeans and hoodie clad, sports-gambling, cop, construction worker, or firefighter content to hang out at the bar on Friday nights downing shots and beers. Can Tina bridge these two worlds?

With spot on, perfect prose, Eddie Joyce uses flashbacks to get inside the heads of each member of the Amendola family. And as they allow us to see their strengths, their foibles, their sins, and their moments of pure grace, readers can't help but recognize pieces of themselves. Eddie Joyce, by tapping into the ferocious sense of love and loyalty within families and small communities has performed a minor miracle. "Small Mercies" will likely be among my top ten best reads of 2015.

Kent Haruf's "Our Souls at Night"

 

What does that title conjure up for you? Truth and beauty was what I thought when I saw this novel on the shelf. I'd always had Mr. Haruf on my "to read" list. His trilogy which began with "Plainsong" has been highly praised. I kept telling myself, "I'll get to him, I'll get to him." Alas, Mr. Haruf died last November, but not before finishing this masterpiece of depth within a deceptively simple 179 pages.

 

Known for his glorification of small town life, Mr. Haruf writes about the people of Holt, Colorado, their daily lives and worries, small and large. Reading him could almost make one long for those days when neighbors watched out for one another and doors were left unlocked at night. Sure, everyone knew your business and that could be an annoyance, but generally they wished you well. Or at least, that's what Addie and Louis discovered.

 

I can't imagine the courage it took for Addie Moore to take those first steps, two doors down to Louis Waters' house. Both widowed, Addie and Louis had probably been watching each other for a while. How could they not when their paths crossed all the time? But that May evening when Addie knocked on Louis's door and he invited her in, the proposition she offered must have come as a bit of a shock.

 

Addie didn't pull any punches, she didn't equivocate. She told Louis the truth, that she's lonely, that she misses the warm comfort of a body beside her in bed, that she longs to talk with another person at the end of the day. Might he be feeling a similar longing? Would he consider spending the nights with her?

 

I felt such joy as I read of their awkward beginnings, Louis traipsing up to the back door of Addie's house with his pajamas and toothbrush in a paper sack. Addie offering a pre-bedtime glass of wine to calm their nerves, their gradual relaxation into routine, the lingering conversations before each drifts off to sleep, had me sighing with contentment.

 

Oh yes, the neighbors whispered at first, but as Addie and Louis became more sure of themselves and began appearing in public for lunch or a stroll in the park, the towns people accepted them as a couple, allowing them to see themselves that way too. The only problem? Their children.

 

Haruf makes astute observations about the difficulties of blending families. Why  children think that they have any right to dictate the actions of their parents has always been beyond me. More to the point, why would a parent allow his child to quarterback his decision? Don't kids trust that their folks have enough love to spread around? Or is it the money? A false sense of morality, perhaps?

 

 As Addie's and Louis's new found sense of well being is tested by the interference of her son I found myself reflecting on the many senior couples I know who followed their hearts rather than their heads and hoping that the author would imbue his characters with that same joie de vivre. This lovely, spare novel is a must read, the author's final gift to the reading world.