Mercy Street, by Jennifer Haigh

Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever read a book that you connected with to the point that, upon finishing the last page, has you wanting to start back on page one immediately?

Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh is one of those books in my recently-read stack that I wanted to restart almost immediately. (More on that in a minute.)

Claudia Birch works in a women's center on Boston's Mercy Street (hence the title). Every morning, despite the cold winter weather, she must work her way through the crowd of protesters to get to the building, where she and her coworkers man the phone lines, dispensing advice to women needing birth control and/or abortions. Divorced, childless, and estranged from her mother, Claudia finds her job rewarding, but stressful, occasionally visiting her local pot dealer to help her make it through the work week.

The book also dives into the lives of Tim (the pot dealer), Anthony (disabled from a work accident, who finds his daily trips to church, smoking weed, and protesting in front of Mercy Street all as ways of finding meaning in his life), and Victor, a scary, misogynistic man who posts signs around the country denouncing abortion, and runs an internet site showing women who he perceives are getting abortions.

How all these lives, as well as the other women on Mercy Street - workers and those in need - intertwine and feed off of each other binds the story together in a thoroughly engrossing way.

Whatever the reader's thoughts on abortion might be, Mercy Street still makes for interesting reading. The very end of the book - what happens to all of the main characters - wraps the book up nicely.

This is definitely a "must read."

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