tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414435776825765041.post4377757737247749493..comments2024-03-14T01:41:15.350-05:00Comments on Stranded in Chaos: The Crooked Heart of MercySara Strandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02641499434694637445noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414435776825765041.post-91355203066005149752016-03-12T16:58:21.295-06:002016-03-12T16:58:21.295-06:00I read Crooked Heart of Mercy in Canada where it c...I read Crooked Heart of Mercy in Canada where it came out first. I give it 5 stars and then some! <br />Partly because my degrees were in English and the Humanities, I'm interested in the cognitive content of human emotion. I'm guessing Sara's dislike came from a young parent's innate fear that they may not be doing the absolute best for their child.There's a lot of pressure these days, for sure!<br />Disgust at the behaviour of others, particularly fictional characters, needs examination. It can be an excuse to shut off any compassion for them lest we be contaminated by their flaws.Or it can be an opportunity to remember not to beat ourselves up when we make our own, usually mundane, relatively inconsequential mistakes. <br />This novel is about flawed human beings, like we all are. Ordinary people who through a moment of inattention (which can happen without taking a drink or ingesting a drug)-- are thrown into an extreme situation. Some people consider the characters in Joyce Carol Oates' fiction grotesque. Oates, one of the great American authors, maintains that they are ordinary people in extreme situations. Livingston's writing is sometimes compared to Oates' with good reason. <br />She strives for meaning and understanding and in Crooked Heart,approaches the Christian meaning of mercy. This mercy is not lenience at some wrong, it is a soothing compassion for all flawed humans rather than a release from real consequences. It is what we all seek without knowing it. Some seek solace in a bottle or capsule, others in fleeting sexual encounters-- sure it can be destructive behaviour but anyone who has ever felt less than perfect, or tasted the broken glass fringe of depression has at least a passing acquaintance for that thirst for... something larger, perhaps even more "oceanic" than oneself. <br />The writing in Crooked Heart is masterful, and if one has lived as long as I have, a child of the 60s, one has had a lifetime of knowing flawed individuals and loving them just the same. Of making a few poor choices, picking yourself up and soldiering on--the alternative is unacceptable. And therein lies the redemption the characters are hoping for at the end of the novel. They turn their very human faces toward the light of mercy like a bunch of sunflowers following the trajectory of the sun. <br />The light of mercy shines in the darkness. Hold that thought!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13802143413319268761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414435776825765041.post-18619613917389283432016-03-12T14:25:11.104-06:002016-03-12T14:25:11.104-06:00Thank you for sharing your thoughts as part of the...Thank you for sharing your thoughts as part of the tour. trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10688001590373132381noreply@blogger.com