Grab A Question Of Mercy Composed By Elizabeth Cox Accessible As Paperback

is a great read that builds suspense and involvement with the characters who all face heartwrenching decisions and calls for forgiveness in their lives, Cox reminds us of the misunderstood innocence of special needs young adults whose presence in our lives can enrich us all if we are aware of the possibilities.
Beautifully written! The last few chapters are especially moving, A beautiful coming of age novel that challenges and reveals American attitudes toward the mentally handicapped during thes, It's hard to believe that such things as lobotomy and castration were accepted practices to "deal" with the sexuality of people considered only possibly harmful to society, The characters and their struggles felt real and immediate and the setting was interesting and unusual, A very good read. Excellent. Gives food for thought!
Inappropriate material Onvan : A Question of Mercy Nevisande : Elizabeth Cox ISBN :ISBN:DarSafhe Saal e Chap :My first Elizabeth Cox book, It was a very sensitve read, Conditions at that time for the mentally ill were deplorable, What an incredible story. Terribly sad, disturbing, triumphant, and heartfelt all in one, I'm still a bit breathless awaiting the long awaited to end to Jess and A dam's stories, Quite disturbing to me. My first book of Elizabeth Cox, It was a lovely read, the book made me cry, It's a story of a mentally challenged kid, loved by his family but always misunderstood by many, A blended family, a young man with a disability, and an agonizing decision, Will he end up in the state mental institution Some disturbing choices have to be made, Wellwritten about a difficult subject, This book is capital G, Good, I picked this up on a whim from my local library and boy am I glad I did, The story is so fully developed as are the characters, Elizabeth Cox just did a wonderful job building this whole world and I am very sad to leave it, Too rarely a book comes along that totally pulls you into its pages to the point that it's hard to distinguish the story in the book from your real life.
This is one of those special books, I walked along North Carolina roads with Jess and I mourned Adam's death with her, I am still thinking about these characters days after I read the last page and I know that this will be one of those books that I remember for a long time.


When Jess's father remarries, his new wife brings her son into their home, Adam is mentally disabled and as his body matures, he starts getting into trouble because he is different, His mother feels that the only place he can live safely is in a state hospital where the doctors plan to lobotomize and castrate him, The book takes place in the earlys and this was still the approved method to control the mentally challenged in North Carolina, Jess is aware of the plans and is totally opposed because she knows the procedure will cause Adam to lose what makes him Adam, After Adam's death, Jess runs away from home looking for peace and acceptance,

The novel isn't just about love and family it's about how society cares for its weakest members and how families form not just by birth but also out of love and concern for each other.


This is a powerful novel and one that definitely needs to be read and talked about, If I could, I would give it more than five!

Thanks to the publisher Story River Books for a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.
What a beautiful, wonderful book! The characters are so true to life that you will feel as though you have gained new friends, It tells the story of Jess and Adam, her mentally challenged stepbrother, whom she adores, When Adam drowns in the French Broad River near their home in North Carolina, Jess flees without letting anyone know what happened or where she is headed, The reader is carried along on Jess's odyssey and becomes her companion, The book contains themes of love, honor, and sacrifice and addresses the issue of mental health care in the's it presents a character in Jess who is willing to fight injustice no matter the cost.
Elizabeth Cox has done a commendable job and this book deserves the highest accolades, A wellwritten story, on many levels, about the grittiness and complexity of mental disabilities in the mids, particularly in the South, It's easy to sit back now and pass judgment, forgetting that much was unknown and yet to be understood by even medical professionals during that time, Shock treatments and lobotomies seemed almost as common to use as coping measures for particular mental disabilities as Csections are now for convenience,

In this twohundred page story, Cox crafts every sentence to deeply develop her characters causing the reader to develop a relationship with each one, Quite wellwritten.

This book ended up on my shelves because of Pat Conroy's desire to mentor and edit new Southern fiction authors and the avenue of Story River Books to publish those original stories.
Adam Finney, a young man who is mentally disabled, faces sterilization and lobotomy in a statesupported asylum, When he is found dead in the French Broad River of rural North Carolina, his teenaged stepsister, Jess, is sought for questioning by their family and the police.


Jess's odyssey of escape across four states leads into dark territories of lifeanddeath moral choices where compassion and grace offer faint illumination but few answers, A Question of Mercy, set in a vivid landscape of the midtwentiethcentury South, is the fifth novel from Robert Penn Warren Awardwinning writer Elizabeth Cox, As she challenges notions of individual freedom and responsibility against a backdrop of questionable practices governing treatment of the mentally disabled, she also stretches the breadth and limitations of the human heart to love and to forgive.


Jess Booker, on the run and alone, leaves the comfort of her home near Asheville, recklessly trekking through woods and hitchhiking her way to a boarding house in tiny Lula, Alabama, a perceived safe haven she once visited with her late mother.
Pursued by a mysterious car with a faded "I Like Ike" sticker, Jess is also haunted by memories of her mother's early death, her father's distressing marriage to Adam's mother, the loving bond she was able to form with Adam despite her initial resistance, and her boyfriend Sam's troubling letters from the thick of combat in the Korean War.
In Lula, Jess finds, if only briefly, a respite among a curious surrogate family of fellow displaced outsiders banded together under one roof, and there she finds the strength to heed the call homeward to face the questions she cannot answer about her stepbrother's death.


Through her vibrant depictions of characters in crisis and of the lush, natural landscapes of her southern settings, Cox brings to the fore the moral, ethical, and seemingly unnatural decisions people face when caring for society's weakest members.
Grappling with the powerful bonds of love and family, A Question of Mercy recognizes the countless ways people come to help one another and the poor choices they can make because of lovechoices that challenge the boundaries of human decency and social justice but also choices that can defy what is legal in the

course of seeking what is right.
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