6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Didactic Disorder Not an Eating Disorder, March 11, 2007
This review is from: Mercy, Unbound (Paperback)
This book is divided into four parts, the reason I gave it more than one star
was because of the second part. This second part describes the main character's
(Mercy O'Connor) experience at a clinic in New Mexico for anorexics. Not knowing or even
really ever thinking about what goes on at one of these clinics it gave me insights
into a disorder that I have not read much about. Additionally, the second part
had less political commentary than the rest of the book.
This is my main complaint with the rest of the book. The narrative will move along
and then BAM! p. 5-"She(Mercy's Mom) does not believe in God. She said she can't because
if there was a God who could make things better and didn't, then that was a God
was crazy evil sonofabitch...." A few sentences later on the same page BAM! "He(Mercy's
father) was raised in the Midwest on a farm an organic farm, no less....". As an aside here
funny that Mercy's grandparents are organic farmers as her dad describes that his family came
over to the United States due to the "potato famine" in Ireland caused by
phytophthora infestans. Uhhhhh, if it was me and my family had to leave Ireland
because of some fungus I would make sure I would be killing anything that threatened my crops with pesticides.
Anyhow, narrative continues, BAM! p. 11-"Just like the Catholic Church to make a man
the saint of a kitchen. How many men do you know cook?" At least Mercy responds to her mother
that her father does the cooking at home. Narrative continues BAM! p. 12-"That is essentially
what they're doing in Africa. Denying women their reproductive rights. Here in the United States
women died so that other women could have the same rights as men", her mother explains. Alright,
I think I have made my point, God knows the author has made hers.
Mercy thinks she is growing angel wings, I found this distracting. Not only is the reader
trying to figure out why Mercy has anorexia, she comes from a solid family, not sexually abused,
denies that her anorexia has anything to do with onset sexuality, but then the reader has to
deduce why she thinks she is growing angel wings. If the author's point is to get the reader
to think about a lot of things at once she has accomplished her goal. Mercy then inexplicably
is found running around in desert, naked and has blacked out for four days. She is found,
starts eating and regains her memory. Well, I guess if I had a problem and was taken care of by nice
people at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house I might be cured as well. I found part four to be maudlin
and saccharin. A fourteen year old girl may not feel the way I do about this book, but if she is
as smart as Mercy is she will at least see that it is not the book that is described on the back cover.
Lastly, the author is a librarian and I am as well, therefore I was disappointed at some lax fact
checking that occured in the book. Mercy remembers her dead maternal grandfather Max who was an
Amercian soldier. Grandpa Max met Grandma Dottie when Grandpa Max liberated Grandma Dottie at Ravensbruck
concentration camp. Unless Grandpa Max was also a member of the Red Army this could not have happened.
Ravensbruck was a concentration camp for women that was liberated by the Soviets. It is odd that the movie
"King of Hearts" is mentioned and lauded twice in this book. It is a great anti-war movie, but if it were not
for people like Grandpa Max whether he fought for the Americans or the Red Army Grandma Dottie would probably
have died.
If a young library patron wanted a fiction book about a girl with anorexia I am afraid I could not
recommend this one, therefore I will have to find one and read it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Enough Wings Here, July 29, 2010
This review is from: Mercy, Unbound (Paperback)
A teenage girl believes she is turning into an angel, wings and all, and--as a consequence--feels she doesn't need food to survive, subsequently refuting all claims that she has an eating disorder. An interesting take on eating disorder, which should have focused more on its central plot, is soon plagued by a lurching attempt to fit in as many controversial and often tangential topics as possible, including AIDS, political legislation, feminism, the Holocaust, homosexuality, abortion, stillbirths, religion, self-injury, and environmental law (in a book only about 160 pages long). This damages both the flow and coherence of the book, which loses itself by the end and has a conclusion too sudden to recover the narrative or satisfy the reader. Antieau's prose relating Mercy's condition itself is jarring and provoking so it's sad that what could have been a haunting portrait of one girl's journey of self-discovery and rebirth is instead clouded by a host of distractions.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Compulsive Reader's Reviews, April 15, 2008
This review is from: Mercy, Unbound (Paperback)
Mercy can't seem to make her parents understand that her refusal to eat isn't anorexia or bulimia, or any other sort of eating disorder. She simply doesn't need to eat. Because only when she stops eating completely will she finally turn into an angel, and can help correct the world's many problems.
But when her parents ignore her wishes, despite the fact that Mercy claims to feel her wings, and take her to a treatment center, Mercy becomes frightened. The other girls are really sick, and their thoughts and ideas on food scare her, and when tragedy strikes, Mercy's resolutions and beliefs about her condition will be put to the test.
Mercy, Unbound was a peculiar, yet very absorbing read. It neither bashes nor condones eating disorders, but is instead a look at one girl's struggle to overcome the crushing feelings of helplessness as to how to solve the world's many problems. Packed full of pop culture references, allusions to great works of literature, historical facts, and many modern social problems, this is a read for the slightly more mature and well read teen. Despite this fact, story moves fluidly rather than didactically, flitting between Mercy's point of view and her diary entries, making the account of her experience more personal, but also a testament to Antieau's remarkable writing abilities as she seamlessly weaves words together to create a read that will engulf the reader entirely.
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