Mercury: A Novel of Marriage, Obsession, and Desire That Changes Everything

I enjoyed this book. I have been a lover of horses since an early age, perhaps long before I had the opportunity to ever ride one, and years before I owned one. I enjoyed the story and the way the characters were drawn and presented. Once the events of the dilemma were outlined, I was able to foresee the ways each of the characters might react except for the blind friend. Certainly he had had enough horror in his life to be angry at the perpetrator of his gun shot wound and at Donald who had been dishonest with him, but somehow I had expected him to act differently than he did. That said, I don't think I expected him to forgive all when he heard the truth. His reaction was probably much more in line with the way the author perceived it in reality, than if he simply forgave the transgression, and the lies that got them to the climactic point in the book. The story was well told and I felt that once the characters were drawn, the author kept them acting and reacting in reasonable ways within the scope of their original personalities. The book interested me enough to complete it within two days. That does not always happen with the books I read, and I shall be looking at this author's books for future reads!

I was totally absorbed by this wonderful book. I guess it might be hard to relate to if you have don't love horses and have never been absorbed in the world of horses (been there, done that!). From an early age, I owned horses and was caught up in the horse world...."horse people," the horse show world, etc. so I could understand Viv's dream of returning to the elite show circuit. It's now been many years since I owned a horse but they are still in my heart. The story is told mostly by Donald, who is married to Viv. He does not share (or truly understand) her love of horses but he wants her to be happy and agrees to her quitting her lucrative job in finance to help manage a stable. He shoulders a lot of the household duties and caring for their two children along with his practice as an optometrist. All her life Viv has ached to try to return to compete in high level horse shows and when a new horse (Mercury) arrives to be boarded at the barn (a dappled grey thoroughbred who is everything she has ever dreamed of) she is besotted. It was interesting to me that, in looking back, Donald is also able to see things in context, question his response to certain actions, and weigh what he did - and didn't - do to be a part of the things that happen. The writing in this novel is wonderful....strong and with excellent pacing. There are some small details I would question (Mercury's mane is described by Donald as white but I've never seen a dappled grey horse with anything but a black mane and tail), for example, and the cover shows a blurred photo of a horse but the horse is chestnut brown instead of grey, but these are very minor in the merits of the book.. There is one long chapter from Viv's point of view and it helps the reader to understand a bit how she feels achingly drawn to this horse who is owned by someone else. At times, it seems she cannot quite believe that Mercury is not hers. There are several interesting sub-plots (Donald's stories about a childhood friend in Scotland, a blind college professor who is a friend of theirs, Donald's mother who is trying to move on with her life after her husband dies) that all rang completely true to me. These were characters I grew to care about as the story unfolds. The quote I used in the headline for this review was one I heard nearly 40 years ago. I don't remember the author and I may have the wording slightly wrong, but it sums up the story completely. It came to mind as I was reading Mercury.

I'm sorry. I wanted to like this novel. I love equestrian themed books and thrillers. However, I found the characters unsympathetic and the plot unbelievable. There is no way that this successful business woman would think she was going to regain her equestrian success at this stage in life with a horse that doesn't belong to her. The situation in the barn (which I will not describe so as not to ruin the book) is beyond ridiculous and the resulting cover up is also not consistent with the characters. I wanted to shake both the woman and the man. I adore riding and I pamper my own horses but I would never put my family at risk in the way that this woman does. And certainly not for a single horse.

At first Mercury reads like a prosaic, but interesting enough yuppie novel, but then gains resonance. The novel asks: how important is honesty; when does ambition become obsession. I never did understand why a successful ophthalmologist would need to become essentially an optometrist to earn more money.

At a recent talk Margot Livesey spoke about “Mercury” in relationship to the genre of “thriller” The book is quite dark and could have been written in a breathless, hyperbolic style, but she chose a different approach. She wanted to present obsession, violence, paranoia and denial in a restrained voice, something of a counterpoint to the subject matter. The language of the book is mostly quiet and almost soothing at points. The darkest and most bizarre elements of the human consciousness are presented in the language of quotidian normalcy. I love this because it makes the physical and emotional violence all the more ominous and points to the strangeness of our own lives. Livesey’s prose is simultaneously understated, chilling and delicious. She has written a book in which all the answers are also the questions. The moral resolution depends on the lens through which each character sees the world. The reader is left with a rich and lingering complexity. The book may or may not be a thriller, but it is certainly thrilling.

A book that focuses on ethical decisions, self-doubt, the importance of being truthful, the value of friendship.

Disappointing. I skipped over a lot of it because it didn't engage me. I didn't care for the characters ... except the horse. I do love horses.

I read a review in the Sunday Lit column. The review was enough for me to drag that section of the newspaper down to the computer and capture the Kindle version. I was not disappointed. The pace of the book was good and I enjoyed the alternating perspectives of the two main characters. I like the teasers that played out a few chapters ahead as well as the dramas that involved the other characters. I would and have recommended it to others.