Oklahoma native Askew follows the spare, haunting stories of her
debut collection, Strange Business (1992), with a wrenching
Cain-and-Abel first novel set in a vividly realized 19th-century
American West. In 1886, brothers John and (la) Fayette "Fate" Lodi
make a hurried move from their Kentucky homeland to the promise of
new land and a new start in Oklahoma's Indian Territory. Their
story is initially narrated by John's ten-year-old daughter MaRie,
who knows it is her uncle's dishonest dealings that have forced
their move, and also intuits "the brotherness that would not let
them love one another nor unbind themselves." This troubled union
dominates the rest of their days and precipitates the violent
climax toward which the novel inexorably moves. Askew shifts
adroitly among Mattie's narration, the "testimony" of other family
and neighbors, and an omniscient over-voice (reminiscent of that in
Faulkner's novels) that effectively summarizes and interprets
actions that their participants only partially understand. The
hardships endured during the Lodis' journey westward establish the
pattern for a succession of beautifully developed extended scenes,
including the wasting away and sudden death (from homesickness and
heartbreak) of Mattie's mother, Mattie's own exhausted efforts to
mother her younger siblings (most strikingly, her confrontation
with a black wet-nurse she accuses of "witching" her baby sister),
her "spells" and their relation to Mattie's belief in the world of
spirits, and the climactic action that separates and will
eventually, ironically, reunite the troubled brothers. Askew excels
at indirect characterization: Her portrayals (entirely through
others' eyes) of John Lodi's patient, stoical forbearance (he's a
skilled gunsmith, who turns his weapons, as it were, into
ploughshares) and his brother Fate's mean, shifty criminality are
marvelously concise yet full-blooded. And Mattie is simply one of
the most engaging and heartbreaking characters in contemporary
fiction. Reminiscent of the work of Elizabeth Madox Roberts and
perhaps Wright Morris's Plains Song. A magnificent debut novel.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Few first novels garner the kind of powerful praise awarded this epic story that takes place on the dusty, remorseless Oklahoma frontier, where two brothers are deadlocked in a furious rivalry. Fayette is an enterprising schemer hoping to cash in on his brother's talents as a gunsmith. John, determined not to repeat the crime that forced both families to flee their Kentucky homes, doggedly follows his tenacious brother west, while he watches his own family disintegrate.
Wondrously told through the wary eyes of John's ten-year-old daughter, Mattie, whose gift of premonition proves to be both a blessing and a curse, The Mercy Seat resounds with the rhythms of the Old Testament even as it explores the mysteries of the Native American spirit world. Sharing Faulkner's understanding of the inescapable pull of family and history, and Cormac McCarthy's appreciation of the stark beauty of the American wilderness, Rilla Askew imbues this momentous work with her tremendous energy and emotional range. It is an extraordinary novel from a prodigious new talent.
- Strange Business, a collection of linked stories that won the 1993 Oklahoma Book Award, is available from Penguin.
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