The Heaven of Mercury

by Brad Watson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.29

  Finus Bates has loved elegant, chatty Birdie Wells for eighty years, ever since he saw her cartwheel naked through the woods near the backwater town of Mercury, Mississippi, in 1917. Later Finus won Birdie at poker, but then he lost her again . . . All around the town, Watson's characters dream about the missed opportunities of their lives, the fleeting chances when their courage failed them; Parnell, the town undertaker, whose unspeakable desires bring lust for life and death together; Creasie and her Aunt Vish, descended from slaves, who consider Mercury a cage. Brad Watson brings his own unique, mordant wit to the traditional darkness of Southern Gothic, recalling the work of such writers as William Faulkner, Toni Morrison and Flannery O'Connor. The Heaven of Mercury is a sumptuous portrayal of lifelong friendship, restless passion, marital discord, ageing and transcendence.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.29

  Finus Bates has loved chatty, elegant Birdie Wells for 80 years, ever since he saw her cartwheel naked through the woods near the backwater town of Mercury, Mississippi in 1917. Loved her through their marriages to other people, through the mysterious death of Birdie's womanising husband, Earl, and through all the poisonous accusations against her after that. All during Mercury's evolution from sleepy town to small city. Finus - reporter, radio host and obituary writer - aims to have the last word on its inhabitants, from obsequious undertaker Parnell Grimes to Euple Scarbrough, local encyclopaedia of useless knowledge. Loyal to Birdie, Finus won't rush to unravel the mystery of her husband's death - not until Birdie herself has entered Mercury's heaven. Magnificently written, this is a sumptuous portrayal of lifelong friendship, restless passion, marital discord, aging and transcendence. A triumph of contemporary American writing.