The Heaven of Mercury

Summary from the Publisher...

Finus Bates has loved Birdie Wells since the day he saw her do a naked cartwheel in the woods in 1916. Later he won her at poker, lost her, then nearly won her again after the mysterious poisoning of her womanizing husband. Does Vish, the old medicine woman down in the ravine, hold the key to Birdie's elusive character? Or does Parnell, the town undertaker, whose unspeakable desires bring lust for life and death together? Or does the secret lie with some other colorful old-timer in Mercury, Mississippi, not such a small town anymore? With "graceful, patient, insightful and hilarious" prose (USA Today), Brad Watson chronicles Finus's steadfast devotion and Mercury's evolution from a sleepy backwater to a small city.

Discussion Questions

Barry Hannah, in a comment on Brad Watson's first collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog-men, wrote: "Watson's people are the wretched dreams of honorable dogs." In this, Watson's first novel, what seems to be his view of human and animal nature?
Would you describe Watson's writing as earthy or lyrical? What characteristics dominate in his prose and how do they affect his portrayals of individual characters? How do elements of his style influence the book's intermingling of the living and the dead? Does Watson's prose evoke or suggest a larger world view?
How does Finus's radio broadcast set the stage for the rest of the novel, n terms of both narrative and theme? Did Finus's cosmic reflections strike you as profound or eccentric?
Some of Watson's characters seem to have an intimate connection with a world or dimension beyond the strictly material world of the present. How does this affect their ability to relate to the "real" world? What is it about Watson's prose that makes this "other" world seem normal and understandable to the reader? Would you describe this other dimension as magical or spiritual in a conventional sense?
Time, memory, and desire are traditionally construed as elements of earthly existence that are no longer relevant in the afterlife. Would you say that Watson turns that idea on its head? Is there some way in which time, memory, and desire in this novel are elements of a "life beyond" that surrounds us even while we're living?
Is this identifiably a "Southern novel"? Why? How is the Southern literary tradition distinct from writing from the rest of America? Is this related to the issue of race?
Did you find Watson's portraits of Vish, Creasie, and Frank offensive? Why, or why not? Is the reader invited to see these characters differently from the way the white characters in the book see, or don't see, them? Do we get any idea of how they might see themselves?
How do Watson's influences show themselves, and do they add to or subtract from the originality of his novel? Do the "ghosts" of Southern literature overwhelm his work or does he manage to keep them in their place, and how? What elements remind you of Faulkner, Welty, O'Connor, or other writers?
"The heaven of mercury" is the second circle of heaven in the "Paradiso" of Dante Alighieri's fourteenth-century religious allegory, The Divine Comedy. What was Watson trying to achieve with such an allusion in the title of a novel about twentieth-century Mississippi? One reviewer commented that the title was the weakest part of the book-- do you agree? What about the author's choice to use mock Latin chapter titles-- does that work with, or against, the "Southernness" of the novel?
Does the community in Mercury change from the beginning to the end of the novel or does it seem to be suspended in time? How, if at all, does the outside world affect the way the story plays out?
Fellow southern novelist Larry Brown was one of many who compared Watson's novel not only to Faulkner but also to South American novelist and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcëa Marquez. What does Watson have in common with Garcëa Marquez? Are the fabulistic elements in the book examples of "magic realism," or are they really fantasies of the individual characters? What is the role of dreaming and fantasy in this book?
Does Watson effectively combine an intimacy with his individual characters with a larger overview of their lives? What is gained and what is lost in his narrative strategy?
Is the narrator omniscient? How does the novel's use of various points of view shape the narrative and, ultimately, the book's view of the world, or your view of the book?
Finus is an old man when we are told the story of his love for Birdie Wells and of life in Mercury. Watson claims that his older relatives were the most alive of all the people he knew. Why do you think he chose Finus as the main character? How do you think his age affects the tone and pace of the book?
In an interview, Watson explained that when he first started writing this book, he was thinking about the idea of communion between the living and the dead. Does this novel believe in an afterlife, or transcendence? If so, of what kind?

The Heaven of Mercury

Discussion Questions

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