Mercy: A Novel [Paperback]

Andrea Dworkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1993

“If Andrea Dworkin is the Malcolm X of feminism, then this novel is her version of his autobiography. . . . She is brilliant, her anger is a polished and dangerous instrument, and even some of the people she’s marked as enemies can hope she finds her way.” –– Madison Smartt Bell, Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her nonfiction books ( Letters from a War Zone ) and her first novel ( Ice and Fire ) Dworkin established a reputation as a provocative writer of feminist literature. She gives her own name to the protagonist/narrator of this powerful, almost frenzied, admittedly autobiographical novel that chronicles her life and sexual victimization. "Andrea" gets her first taste of sex at age nine when she is molested in a movie theater. A rebellious teenager, she hangs out in Greenwich Village, idolizes Allen Ginsberg and is swept up into the peace movement. Penniless, streetwise but not street-smart, Andrea is continually and brutally raped by lovers, acquaintances, strangers. The novel's unparagraphed prose--like Andrea, intense, jumpy, impassioned--brilliantly captures the narrator's mental and physical degradation. As her life disintegrates, she repeats three facts--her name, her place of birth and the poet Walt Whitman's address in Camden, N.J., on a street where she was born--as a mantra anchoring her to reality. The most sexually graphic and horrifying scenes involve her marriage to a European revolutionary who abuses and burns her as she desperately tries to be a good bourgeois housewife. It is no wonder that the novel's ending finds Andrea committed to the women's movement. While Andrea's high-pitched voice is at first hard to take, its vehemence and candor build to a convincing indictment of a society that tolerates violence against women. 25,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this work, the well-known author of numerous books on women, feminism, and pornography has created an unusual, highly charged, and formally provocative account of one woman's life of increasingly horrific violence and sexual abuse by men. The book begins when the protagonist, Andrea, is nine years old and has just been the victim of a sexual assault by a stranger in a movie theater. From that point on, the reader is carried at a dizzying pace through chapters in Andrea's progressively darker and more disturbing life until Andrea, at 27, comes to the decision that the only response to the kind of violence she's suffered all her life at the hands of men is simply to start killing them. Unfortunately, the compelling, stream-of-consciousness pacing of the narrative begins to break down early in the book, becoming a harsh diatribe that, ultimately, Dworkin's skill as a writer is not sufficient to carry.
- Jessica Grim, Oberlin Coll. Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows (January 12, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941423883
• ISBN-13: 978-0941423885
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #996,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A public baring of the soul, February 2, 2002

By 

The Peruvian Wunderkind (Mississauga, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mercy: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a greatly misunderstood work. Oddly enough, <Mercy's> most ardent opponents seem to be the feminist intelligensia (who Dworkin depredates as those waving the "intellectual feminism" banner) who understand this book as a reckless and irresponsible call for violent retributivism against all men. Dworkin writes powerfully and passionately, and it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the novel's narrator ("Andrea")replicates Dworkin's personal views of justice. Rather, this novel interrogates conventional notions of justice and mercy and asks us, the reader, to consider the circumstances of Andrea's life in understanding her conduct at the novel's conclusion.
The novel's feminism is not achieved by baldly inciting all women to violence. Rather, Dworkin points out that: 1) the violence that has been, and is, perpetrated against women is genocidal, and that men have engaged in literal war against them. 2) The judicial system takes litle note of women's experiences in sexual assault, child custody, and other such hearings, and reinforces gender-biased interpetations of women. Dworkin interrogates judicial practice by positioning the reader as the trier of fact whose sole referrant is Andrea, herself. We judge 'her' conduct according to 'her' story. It is only because the legal system fails women that the latter must employ more martial means in defending themselves.
Whether you agree with her or not, Dworkin pens an extremely provocative work that will certainly challenge your assumptions regarding gender relations. The novel's liberal use of stream-of-consciousness techniques reinforces the immediacy and "story from the frontlines" feel of the narrative. I strongly recommend <Mercy> to anyone interested in feminist discourse.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Victim or Survivor?, December 27, 2004

By 

R. Morse "Pink Porch Books" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mercy (Hardcover)

An intense, factual, and very personal revelation about the impact on one person who has been sexually abused. No hiding or shame, Dworkin puts it all out there. Think what you want but she's been there and no one can - or should - tell her how she feels about such a devastating assault. It is NEVER the victim's fault.

The writing technique is not the point, the continued existence of this type of viciousness is what readers may find hard to believe.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Misunderstood Work, March 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Mercy: A Novel (Paperback)

This book is a provocative and interesting story of a woman's sexual abuse. True, she does choose to live on the streets of NYC, but does that make her abuse okay? For a large portion of this book, I had little sympathy for Andrea because she chose her lifestyle. But this book really does have much to say. More than anything, I believe this book is a picture of how our childhoods effect us. No one seems ready to help Andrea, and she does not seem to know better. It is true that this book may seem a bit unrealistic in trying to get its poitn across, but, in the 2 endings, Dworkin gets the best message of this book across. In today's society, women are either submissive or labeled a "crazy" feminist. There is no in between, and that is frustrating for many of us. Our society has mixed messages of what feminism is, and, though it is 2004, there is still a strong bias, alive and well, against women. I applaud Dworkin's courage to be true to herself in writing such a novel.