A Tangled Mercy: A Novel

Known for its history and beauty, Charleston, South Carolina, is one of my favorite places in the United States. My favorite Charlestonian of all time (besides my wife) is Denmark Vesey, who led a failed slave revolt in 1822. He left my church in Charleston (Second Presbyterian Church) to help found Mother Emmanuel AME Church – the same church that hosted a horrific Bible study in 2015 that ended when a white racist murdered nine people. Yet the race riots that he sought to provoke never happened; instead, the families, the church, and the city responded in love and forgiveness. All this captures Charleston in a nutshell: great history, scarred by human failures yet triumphant in virtue.

This book alternates back and forth between storylines – one modern, one older. In one vein, it tells the tragic story of the 1822 revolt, including the skilled but enslaved blacksmith Tom Russell, and these old-time affairs engage with one family’s modern ones in 2015. Faulkner’s oft-quoted line makes an appearance in this book as a theme – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This novel dives deeply into issues of race, so deeply that I had to take a two-day break to process before finishing. Jordan-Lake reminds us that our histories, presents, and futures are all “tangled” – that is, intertwined with each other. Such human entanglement is true whether through DNA, historical interactions, or movements of the heart.

In this narrative, Kate is a Harvard PhD student in history who was recently placed on probation. Her mother recently died, and her father, long absent from her life, is also deceased. Kate came to Charleston to understand her mother’s hidden yet haunting past. She becomes entangled in a series of suspenseful dramas that eventually all come together. The uniting of themes almost strains credulity, but they sure make for a good story! Much Charleston history is shared – the “tangled” story of Draytons, Rutledges, Maingaults, and Pinckneys, family names that span the skin-color divide (both because of naming newly freed individuals as well as because of horrific rapes). The history is respectful to the gothic-ness of southern history in that it is truthful about painful issues but also appreciative of the cultural beauty subsequently created. Anyone looking to confirm simple stereotypes about southern racism, ignorance, or bigotry will be disappointed by this tale’s complexity.

Of course, this book spins good yarn that keeps the reader engaged in suspense until the end. There are detailed issues that the author did not write perfectly – for example, the area code of Charleston in the 1990s was 803, not 843 – but most readers will not catch those details because of the intriguing storyline. This tale presents a newer type of Southern Gothic, in the vein of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, and William Faulkner. It plumbs the depths of the region’s Christian religion to show simultaneously the depths of its historical bondage and the heights of its forgiving hope. In an era when America is discovering how to talk constructively about race in light of fraught history, this book deserves to be on the reading lists for those interested in the conversation.

A Tangled Mercy is a historical fiction book that follows a young girl's journey to Charleston, South Carolina, searching for her roots. After her mother, Sarah Grace, dies, Kate Drayton has many questions about her mother's past and Sarah's obsessive research on a slave named Tom Russell, who died in 1822 during the real-life Denmark Vesey revolt. Unrealistically, Kate accidentally meets all the major players in the story the day she arrives in the city. As the author flips back and forth in time, she tells Tom and Kate's story in alternating chapters, and we soon learn that they are indeed connected. The details of slavery in 1822 are heart-wrenching, and the accurate description of the massacre that occurred at the Mother Emanuel Church in 2015 tells us that racial tensions are still all too real in the south. Dripping with authentic southern charm and culture—sometimes overly so—this book is an engaging story of discovery, letting go, and acceptance.

A compelling mystery told in alternating time periods (2015 and 1822). In 2015, Kate goes home to Charleston, SC, after her mother's death to unlock unanswered questions from her family tree, and to continue research into the Denmark Vesey almost uprising of 1822. Thanks to Joy Jordan-Lake for illuminating a piece of American history that I was unaware of, and needed to know.

I received an advanced e-ARC from NetGalley.

It all come together at the end. However, the plot seems a bit trying at times, it did not flow as smoothly.

Kate Dayton, a Harvard graduate student, suddenly leaves mid-lecture to go to South Carolina to find out the missing answers to her childhood. An ok story that goes back and forth in time. Too many coincidences and a formulaic ending marr the effect of the book.

They say that the past is never really past, that it's tentacles often read into the present. No city is more indicative of this than Charleston. This city has a long, storied past, a beautiful city that for some was not always beautiful. A two thread story, one in the past, one in the present. The past story takes us back to the horrible issue of slavery, in particular 1822, and the Vassey insurrection. This time in the novel focuses on a young, black man, a slave but one who is a talented blacksmith. The present story focuses on a young woman named Kate, who has come to Charleston, trying to find the threads of her family's life, in particular her mother, who loved this city but left it in disgrace.

Amazing characters in this story, Daniel, the current iron maker, Rose, an older woman, who feels she must right some of her family's past failings, and a young boy named Gabe, who will steal your heart. In alternating stories, we go back and forward, the past mingling with the present in a humbling way. The beauty of Charleston is beautifully described, a city I too love. Mother Emmanuel Church plays an important role, then and now. The mass shooting of church members by a sick, warped young man.

Ultimately the novel is about forgiveness, of a personal nature for the characters, and as a city as forgiveness and grace was shown by the church members that were left, and of course their families and friends. A city that came together, black and white, to mourn together, and showed the world that out of evil can come good. In a rare instance I liked each of these threads equally. The ending does come together a little to tidily, a little too good to be true. Yet, sometimes we can hope that things like that do happen, and here in this book it fit.

ARC from Netgalley.

MY REVIEW OF  "A TANGLED MERCY" by Joy Jordan-Lake
 
"A Tangled Mercy" by Joy Jordan-Lake combines the genres of History with Fiction, and  Kudos to the author for the vivid descriptions of the charm, spirit, and architecture of Charleston, South Carolina. There are so many contrasts to Charleston in the past and in the present. The timeline of the novel is basically divided into two,  weaving the story of the 1822 slave uprising and the 2015 Massacre at Charleston's at AME Church. This is a very heavy and significant read.
 
The characters in this novel in both past and present are complex and complicated. Somehow the contrast between good and evil, betrayal and loyalty,love and hate, freedom and oppression seem to be evident in both timelines
 
 Kate Drayton had come to Charleston after her mother's death to seek answers her mother never gave her. In the process Kate is looking to discover herself. Kate's mother was obsessed with the 1822 slave revolt and a blacksmith named Tom Russell, a slave. Kate meets a colorful cast of characters, each adding some information for the unanswered  questions she is seeking. Kate is a graduate student seeking similar information as her mother to the slave uprising.
 
We see in the past when Tom Russell was a gifted blacksmith, and how slavery was a part of Charleston's history. Although Charleston was a port that welcomed people of different religions , it was a tremendous port for slavery. We meet characters that are loyal and those that are betrayers. During this time period there are complicated and conflicted personalities.
 
Both timelines merge as secrets are discovered and history is revealed. The topic of DNA is brought up and the significance of the research of it. The author shows us that despite hatred and fear, love, hope, trust, and faith is what keeps Charleston. and the people together. In the end, Love, forgiveness, hope and faith will survive. The author also discusses the importance of family, friends, and love.
 
I recommend this novel for those readers that appreciate  fictional characters based on historical facts. I received an Advanced Reading Copy for my honest review.
 
 

This is a well researched novel about Charleston SC in 1822 and 2015 and is not only about racial issues but about family and love and the connections that exist between families and generations.

The author does a fantastic job of tying together the terror that the slaves lived through in 1822 and the more subtle but equally as painful terror that the present day blacks live through on a daily basis. She brings up a unsuccessful slave revolt in 1822 and the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015. The main character in 2015 is Kate, a Harvard grad student trying to solve the mystery of her family while doing research for her dissertation on attempted slave revolt in 1822 while the main character in 1822 is Tom Russell, a slave and blacksmith who is trying to protect the woman that he loves even as he gets involved in the slave revolt. Sometimes when I read books with a dual time line, I like one story more than the other. Both of the stories are compelling and readable with well done characters and the way that the author ties it all together at the end is fantastic.

I highly recommend this book. It's a well written novel on the subject of racism which is an issue that everyone in America needs to learn more about and understand better in our current troubling times.