The Mercy Seat
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
As the sun begins to set over Louisiana one October day in 1943, a young black man faces the final hours of his life: at midnight, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones will be executed by electric chair for raping a white girl - a crime some believe he did not commit.
In a tale taut with tension, events unfold hour by hour from the perspectives of nine people involved. They include Willie himself, who knows what really happened, and his father, desperately trying to reach the town jail to see his son one last time; the prosecuting lawyer, haunted by being forced to seek the death penalty against his convictions, and his wife, who believes Willie to be innocent; the priest who has become a friend to Willie; and a mother whose only son is fighting in the Pacific, bent on befriending her black neighbours in defiance of her husband.
In this exceptionally powerful novel, Elizabeth Winthrop explores matters of justice, racism and the death penalty in a fresh, subtle and profoundly affecting way. Her kaleidoscopic narrative allows us to inhabit the lives of her characters and see them for what they are - complex individuals, making fateful choices we might not condone, but can understand.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Winthrop (The Why of Things) grapples with the ravages of Jim Crow in Louisiana in this staggering multivoiced novel set during World War II. African-American Willie Jones is set to be executed at midnight after being wrongly convicted of the rape of a young white woman. Over the course of Willie's final day, Winthrop cycles through the perspectives of a host of local characters in short, powerful chapters. Willie's father, Frank, rushes to see Willie before the execution date, carrying with him Willie's headstone, which he will never pay off. District Attorney Polly regrets his role in seeking the death penalty, which he was forced to do after local men kidnapped his son as a warning. Father Hanigan disguises his failing faith as he attempts to comfort Willie. Lane, the prison trustee driving the truck containing the electric chair that will be used to execute Willie, proves more honorable than the loathsome, alcoholic guard. Ora frets about her soldier son's safety while her husband Dale struggles to tell her about the letter informing them of his death. Winthrop's survey of these divergent lives compounds their individual pain into a withering critique of a cancerous society. This potent novel about prejudice and the constraints of challenging the status quo will move and captivate readers, especially those looking for socially conscious historical fiction.
