Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas
Reviewed by Margaret McGuire
Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas (Monee, IL: Wiseblood Books, 2022) 261 pp.
How do I interact with, let alone love, my neighbor?
This is one of the questions that haunts the protagonist in Sally Thomas’ Works of Mercy. We meet Kirsty Sain engaged in cleaning the rectory and meeting the new parish priest. Kirsty’s life is well-ordered, undisturbed, and barren. Gradually, we learn she is widowed, childless, and all alone in a Southern rural town worlds away from her birthplace in the Shetland Islands.
Yet soon we realize how alone Kirsty is — and how haunted by her past. People begin coming into her conscious life with the persistence of weeds through pavement. Imperfect, unfiltered, but blessedly alive, vibrant, and impossible to ignore.
Her routine existence is about to implode…and make way for a messy beauty.
Fr. Schulyer: a newly ordained priest who is in love with the mystery and ritual of the Church, but debilitatingly shy and uncertain of how to love and serve her children. He will, in time, call forth Kirsty’s maternity.
Wylie: who goes about fixing broken appliances and giving gifts as a manner of course. His faith life and journey may not be strictly orthodox, but his charity overflows endlessly. He will help inspire Kirsty’s generosity.
Janet: in some ways, she is the complete opposite of Kirsty — a mother of many, outgoing, unconcerned, and unreserved to the point of discomfort to the very reserved Kirsty. Over the course of the novel, Janet will call forth Kirsty’s sisterly spirit; that bond between women, however dissimilar, that unite us in our uniquely feminine identity.
Howie: Janet’s beloved and patient husband, who quietly struggles to support his family and find some sort of equilibrium between his own Jewish faith and the Catholic faith in which his children are raised. He will inspire Kirsty’s respect, pity, and wrath.
Baby: Too small for even a name, whose advent marks the end of Kirsty’s self enclosure. The pavement of reserve is too cracked to hold back the quirky, yet lovable flood of neighbors. The denouement will bring the reader to tears.
Discussion Questions:
1. Routine can be soothing and is often a necessary ingredient of our lives. Yet Kirsty’s routines are so isolating that they stifle her without her realizing. Have you ever needed a reminder that routines are not rules?
2. Kirsty takes refuge in isolation because of a traumatizing experience in her university days. Too many women experience trauma at young ages that leaves them unsure and afraid of reaching out to their neighbors. How can we overcome our own fears and give our neighbors the vulnerability that we simultaneously crave and fear?
3. Janet and Howie seem to take a laissez-faire approach to the begetting and parenting of their brood, and yet their family chugs along merrily without capsizing. Have you ever been surprised at how well circumstances turn out, considering the apparent lack of effort that was put in?
4. Kirsty performs the corporal works of mercy — first as a routine (cleaning the rectory), then hesitatingly, fearing to offend (for Janet), and then finally as a full person responding to the needs of her neighbor. Do all our own works of mercy move through this cycle?
