It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:- Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader,
where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as
well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book,
or anything else that the opening inspires.
- The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice,
where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find
one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh. The excerpts shared are from a library copy of the novel.
Beginning: Winter
It's hard to know, ever, where a story begins. We touch down in a world fully inhabited by others, a drama already in progress. By the time we make our entrance--incontinent and screaming, like dirty bombs detonating--the climax is a distant memory. Our arrival is not the beginning; it is a consequence.
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Page 56: Deb said, "He shouldn't have done that."
Claudia waited for her to say more, but there was no more. Her mother reached for the remote and clicked through the channels.
"He's gone now," Deb said. "He won't bother you again."
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My thoughts: With a woman's right to choose and Roe v. Wade under constant attack, I look forward to reading this timely novel.
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From GoodReads: The highly anticipated new novel by acclaimed New York Times
bestselling author Jennifer Haigh is a tense, riveting story about the
disparate lives that intersect at a women's clinic in Boston.
For
almost a decade, Claudia has counseled patients at Mercy Street, a
clinic in the heart of the city. The work is consuming, the unending
dramas of women in crisis. For its patients, Mercy Street offers more
than health care; for many, it is a second chance.
But outside
the clinic, the reality is different. Anonymous threats are frequent. A
small, determined group of anti-abortion demonstrators appears each
morning at its door. As the protests intensify, fear creeps into
Claudia's days, a humming anxiety she manages with frequent visits to
Timmy, an affable pot dealer in the midst of his own existential crisis.
At Timmy's, she encounters a random assortment of customers, including
Anthony, a lost soul who spends most of his life online, chatting with
the mysterious Excelsior11--the screen name of Victor Prine, an
anti-abortion crusader who has set his sights on Mercy Street and is
ready to risk it all for his beliefs.
Mercy Street is a
novel for right now, a story of the polarized American present. Jennifer
Haigh has written a groundbreaking novel, a fearless examination of one
of the most divisive issues of our time.
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This
Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally
composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog,
bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.
