The Mercy Seat

Starred review from February 26, 2018
Winthrop (The Why of Things) grapples with the ravages of Jim Crow in Louisiana in this staggering multivoiced novel set during World War II. African-American Willie Jones is set to be executed at midnight after being wrongly convicted of the rape of a young white woman. Over the course of Willie’s final day, Winthrop cycles through the perspectives of a host of local characters in short, powerful chapters. Willie’s father, Frank, rushes to see Willie before the execution date, carrying with him Willie’s headstone, which he will never pay off. District Attorney Polly regrets his role in seeking the death penalty, which he was forced to do after local men kidnapped his son as a warning. Father Hanigan disguises his failing faith as he attempts to comfort Willie. Lane, the prison trustee driving the truck containing the electric chair that will be used to execute Willie, proves more honorable than the loathsome, alcoholic guard. Ora frets about her soldier son’s safety while her husband Dale struggles to tell her about the letter informing them of his death. Winthrop’s survey of these divergent lives compounds their individual pain into a withering critique of a cancerous society. This potent novel about prejudice and the constraints of challenging the status quo will move and captivate readers, especially those looking for socially conscious historical fiction. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

March 15, 2018

In 1943, in a small Louisiana town where poverty, bigotry, and fear impact the lives of everyone, the people await the midnight execution of Willie Jones, a young black man convicted of raping a white girl. Grace wasn't raped, she was Willie's lover, but her father and his Klansmen friends think otherwise. The tension builds as various people grapple with an execution only hours away. Young prison trusty Lane, who with the heavy-drinking Captain Seward, has the dreadful task of delivering the traveling electric chair to the court house. He's nauseous thinking about the man who will soon die in the chair. The prosecutor hates himself for his part in the VERDICT, Willie's father desperately tries to deliver his son's headstone but finds his mule too old to finish the journey, and Father Hannigan consoles Willie but knows God doesn't stand a chance in this part of Louisiana. The most powerful story is Willie's. He finds no comfort in religion, instead dreaming only of Grace. VERDICT Based on true events and opening with lyrics from Nick Cave's 1988 song "Mercy Seat," award-winning Winthrop's engrossing story (after The Why of Things) unfolds through strong memorable characters. A remarkable work with a stunning unexpected conclusion, not to be missed.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2018
The imminent execution of a black man shows the level of injustice a town's white residents are willing to endure in this historical novel inspired by real events.Eighteen-year-old Willie Jones sits in a Louisiana jail cell in 1943 awaiting his final punishment, death, for raping a white woman, though the reader learns that the two were involved in a romantic relationship and Willie was arrested after her father discovered them together. The story unfolds as the electric chair makes its way to New Iberia, where Willie and those who wish to see him dead await. Winthrop (The Why of Things, 2013, etc.) deploys the perspectives of several characters--some more directly involved in Willie's fate than others--creating a narrative that causes readers to confront the difference between what is legal and what is just. Power and agency are the sole province of white men, and heavy is the burden--for at least one character. Polly Livingstone, the lawyer who prosecuted Willie but is unsure of his guilt, spends much time agonizing over his role in the process. And Winthrop provides nice nuance by showing that Polly's decision to follow Southern custom by ensuring that a black man suspected of being involved with a white woman is put to death was more complicated than readers might have assumed. Meanwhile, those who care the most about Willie are those who can do the least for him, including Polly's wife, Nell; the town priest, Father Hannigan; and most notably Ora, the wife of the local gas station operator, whose motives are not entirely clear. Winthrop writes most tenderly of Willie's father, Frank, who is trying to ensure that his son has a proper headstone, a task he's understandably avoided. Unfortunately, Frank's role, and those of the other black characters, is marginal, as the book is more dedicated to exposing how the whites who are sympathetic to what Willie represents inevitably fail him. Winthrop does so by invoking those all-too-familiar tropes of Southern literature--the ridiculously hot day; the white bystanders in front of the courthouse; and the Northerner who cannot jibe with those curious Southerners and their ways.Though ambitious in its goals, the book stumbles, causing Willie and his family to suffer more than they already have.

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Starred review from March 15, 2018
Willie Jones is sitting in a jail cell on a hot summer night in Louisiana, awaiting a midnight execution for the rape and murder of a white woman. Prison inmate Lane has been let out for a day to drive the truck that carries the electric chair? a terrible cargo ?to the courthouse. Dale and Ora run the Texaco station outside of town, and Ora's kindness to a black boy is a way of filling the hole left by her son, who is off fighting in the Pacific. Polly, the DA who prosecuted Willie, questions whether justice has been served. Nell, his wife, prepares Willie's final meal, which is delivered by Father Hannigan. Polly and Nell's 12-year-old son, Gabe, is both horrified and fascinated by Willie's plight. Frank, Willie's father, sets out in a mule-drawn wagon bearing a headstone for his son's grave. The lives of these characters mesh in the events surrounding the impending execution, and their points of view cycle through short chapters that build tension as midnight draws near. Winthrop's (The Why of Things, 2013) carefully structured novel is a nuanced, absorbing, atmospheric examination of how racism tears at the whole of society.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)