A Question of Mercy

Jess Booker is unhappy when her father remarries after her mother's death and she ends up with a stepbrother, Adam Finney, who "had never been quite right."But we soon learn that her discomfort with Adam's mental disability gives way to a grudging affection and a growing desire to protect him, even from her own family members, who are pressured to institutionalize him. In the prologue, Jess and her father are in a lawyer's office, and she's trying to gather her thoughts to tell them about Adam's last day alive and her own subsequent disappearance. The rest of the novel describes what happened before and after Adam's death. Cox (The Slow Moon, 2006, etc.) sets her story in a small North Carolina town during the Korean War, and the historical details enhance the book. The first half is a slow read, but Cox lets the tension build while Jess is on the run. Her destination, a boardinghouse in Lula, Alabama, where her mother's childhood friend Will lives, provides a lively diversion from Adam's tragic story. Cox provides a searing look at the painful, dehumanizing treatments forced on people with mental disabilities at the time and the limited support their families had--Adam isn't even allowed to go to school after the first grade. His humanity comes through in Cox's sensitive portrayal, as does the emotional toll his disability takes on his parents and Jess. Cox resists the easy ending and fills her novel with emotional and moral conundrums. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016
Cox's (The Slow Moon, 2006) disquieting novel about the reality of life as a person with cognitive disabilities in mid-twentieth-century North Carolina hits hard. Adam Finney's brain was damaged during a forceps delivery. Early on, doctors predicted that he would likely never develop normal mental capacity, and, indeed, he didn't make it beyond first grade. His mother, Clementine, raised him as best she could after Adam's father abandoned them. Life improved when Clementine married widower Edward Booker. Suddenly, Adam had a stepsister, Jess, who resented him at first but soon became his best friend. Narrated from her point of view, Adam's story takes on a heart-wrenching poignancy when he reaches puberty and his unbridled affection for people, especially young girls, is misread as inappropriate, bordering on pedophilia. As Clementine and Edward grapple with limited options for Adam, including cruel, quasimedical interventions illegal in some states, 17-year-old Jess becomes his champion, bravely opposing their parents and the authorities. A powerful and evocative tale of a family grappling with a cognitive disorder in a hostile time and place.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016
Jess Booker is unhappy when her father remarries after her mothers death and she ends up with a stepbrother, Adam Finney, who had never been quite right.But we soon learn that her discomfort with Adam's mental disability gives way to a grudging affection and a growing desire to protect him, even from her own family members, who are pressured to institutionalize him. In the prologue, Jess and her father are in a lawyers office, and shes trying to gather her thoughts to tell them about Adams last day alive and her own subsequent disappearance. The rest of the novel describes what happened before and after Adams death. Cox (The Slow Moon, 2006, etc.) sets her story in a small North Carolina town during the Korean War, and the historical details enhance the book. The first half is a slow read, but Cox lets the tension build while Jess is on the run. Her destination, a boardinghouse in Lula, Alabama, where her mothers childhood friend Will lives, provides a lively diversion from Adams tragic story. Cox provides a searing look at the painful, dehumanizing treatments forced on people with mental disabilities at the time and the limited support their families hadAdam isn't even allowed to go to school after the first grade. His humanity comes through in Coxs sensitive portrayal, as does the emotional toll his disability takes on his parents and Jess. Cox resists the easy ending and fills her novel with emotional and moral conundrums.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.