To Love Mercy
By
Frank S. Joseph
Reviewed
By
Ameasha
Brown
Frank S. Joseph
has masterfully written his first novel To Love Mercy. He does a wonderful job of making the
reader feel as if they are actually there. The reader is taken back to an era in time to Chicago in the late 1940's, where the reader lives the life's of the characters through their eyes. The story wraps around to young boys, one
coloured and one white. Each are from different sides of the tracks, but their differences do not stop there. Their culture, religion, and values are entirely dissimiliar. Steve Feinberg from Hyde Park is of the Jewish faith and Jesse ( Sass ) Trimble from Bronzeville is of the Christian faith. The Jewish grandfather calls the coloured people shochers and shvartzes which are racial, derogatory remarks, and the coloured call the caucasian whitey, honky. Even the coloured call each other crude names.
The young boys become lost in the city and experience an incredible journey, while their parents are upset and frantic due to the fact they are together, which is unheard of, as well as being lost. Steve and Sass learn about each other in a pure and innocent way and treat each other as equals. On the other hand, the parents of each child treat each other in an unequal fashion. The whites know their place on the social scale and the coloured do also. An excellent touch in the section Afterward that brings forth people who actually lived in Bronzeville in the 1940's and gave them a voice. Peppered with humour and mercy, reading this novel is an eye opening observation on how both sides lived their daily life's. I thoroughly enjoyed this noveI that enlightened my awareness and strongly recommend this novel to anyone who has an interest of this time in history and to all that want an enjoyable reading encounter.