The Mercy of Others: Stories
Amazon Kindle, 2025
Summary
In Death Valley, a man picks up a Dutch woman hitchhiker, and things go from bad to worse. A father in South Carolina receives a goodbye call from his daughter, prompting him to fly to New Mexico to look for her. A couple from Minnesota with a sordid past spend the winter in an RV park in Texas. A truant kid and his girlfriend in Nebraska find a moose that's wandered into the state. A Black woman in Florida who goes to live on her father's abandoned farm discovers a White woman has been staying there. In this compelling collection of heart-wrenching stories, narrators of disparate ages and backgrounds grapple with odd and unexpected circumstances that awaken understanding and self-discovery. Readers who appreciate beautiful and meaningful prose will savor The Mercy of Others.
Quote from Book
“After that, dusk came down, and we huddled on the beach with our sleeping bags wrapped around us. Sandpipers followed the tide in and out, an Osprey circled—it was a whitish hawk that ate fish—and the sea before us grew darker. Lights appeared on the shrimp boats offshore.
“To represent in a few hours a lifetime’s desire and to compress the accumulated aspirations of a man for a woman is too absurd to think about, much less to put into words that are neither rich nor versatile enough to serve the moment. Words would alter meaning instead of enhancing it. We made love, but that’s not a sufficient explanation. It was bestial, romantic, covetous, and serene. We woke to the stars, slept with the sun, and, for those few short hours during two days, I had never been happier.”
From “ Purge” in The Mercy Of Others
Review
Frank Fetters reviews The Mercy of Others on Constant Reader (Delphi Forums). This is what he's said about one story, but it's similar to what he's written about others:
[This next story is called "Lucky." It begins:]
Even two weeks after the fact, what happened is still twisted in my mind like what a battlefield must look like., ---
[I like story beginnings like this one. In the beginning, a short sentence describes a narrator's reaction to what has happened. The first sentence of the next paragraph begins:]
My father's house is at the edge of a cheap subdivision, and my room is at the back, the view cut off by the corner of the Carter's house.
Reading stories that detail its elements in this way remind me of studying masterpieces of visual art at the art museum. It comes at you piece by piece, detail by detail, and you can understand the totality of it only after you have put all the pieces together in your mind. The narrator's name is Jorge', and you see the details only through his consciousness. At this early point, Jorge' describes to a Mr. Stewart what he experienced, and Mr. Stewart says:]
"You were brave, …"
And Jorge' replies:' "Lucky, ..."
From “Lucky” in The Mercy Of Others
Sample Short Stories
One True World
Scottsbluff
The Plains Wanderer