THE MERCY SEAT. A Novel. [Paperback]

Rilla Askew (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: The Viking Press; First Edition edition (1997)
• ISBN-10: 0140265155
• ISBN-13: 978-0140265156
• ASIN: B001U9JUVU
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Rilla Askew was born in southeastern Oklahoma, a fifth generation descendant of southerners who settled in the Choctaw Nation in the late 1800's. Askew's roots go deep in the Sans Bois country, where her family still lives, but in 1980 she moved to New York to pursue an acting career. She soon turned to writing plays, and then fiction. She's the author of three novels and a book of stories, including her award-winning novel about the Tulsa Race Riot, Fire in Beulah. In 2009 Askew received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is not merely a good read. It is an experience., January 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mercy Seat (Hardcover)

This is not an attempt at a review, it is comment. Being a native Oklahoman and a kind of shirt-tail historian, I have nibbled forever at the edges of that formative time in the history of Oklahoma and the making of its people, delighting in finding tidbits and hints of how it really was when my world was in the making. Rilla Askew took my hand and led me there. Gave me time to breathe the air and smell the cooking. Let me feel the rough, peeling bark of a windowless cabin's walls, put my hand on the hurt of a beautiful child in the process of being destroyed by the ambitions and defeats of the adults who make up her world. I'm waiting for my memory of it to cool so I can read it again. Visit Mattie, Fate, John. Maybe lay a compassionate hand on their shoulder. Reviews, comparisons, and synopses fail the book. It is not just a good read. It is an experience.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Mercy Seat" is a phenomenal accomplishment., November 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mercy Seat (Hardcover)

Rilla Askew's fascinating novel succeeds on several levels. She tells a good story -- one that made this reader want to keep turning pages long after bedtime -- and she accurately portrays a way of life and a multi-layered society that has been ignored by most American writers. However, most impressively, she mixes biblical truths, wisdom of the ages, passion, and the creative imperative, to create a morality tale that is all her own. Askew has been compared to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, but she is unique: Like them, her talent is undeniable, and like them, she writes about forgotten groups of people, but her voice and the rhythms of her language are incomparable. Her writing is informed by the King James Bible, but the beauty and power of "The Mercy Seat" are strong enough to stand on their own merits, without comparison.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible story and especially well-told, February 1, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mercy Seat (Hardcover)

This book is well worth your time and in fact will take you out of time and not let you back until you have finished the story. A well wrought novel that ranks with the best.