Awards
Winner of the 2003 Southern Book Award in nonfiction
Shortlisted for the 2002 National Book Award in Fiction
Synopses & Reviews
Brad Watson's first novel has been eagerly awaited since his breathtaking, award-winning debut collection of short stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men. Here, he fulfills that literary promise with a humorous and jaundiced eye. 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. With this "tragicomic story of missed opportunities and unjust necessities" (Fred Chappell), "Southern storytelling is alive and well in Watson's capable hands" ( starred review). "His work may remind readers of William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, or Flannery O'Connor, but has a power--and a charm--all its own, more pellucid than the first, gentler than the second, and kinder than the third" ().
Review
Watson's keen eye for the human condition alone makes Heavena worthwhile read, and you may find yourself accruing a particular type of knowledge that not even Faulkner could impart.
Review
An intensity reminiscent of Faulkner, a bleak humor that recalls Flannery O'Connor, a whimsy inspired by Eudora Welty and a spontaneity suggesting prime Barry Hannah.... reading The Heaven of Mercurycertainly restores one's faith in Southern literature's ability to startle and surprise.
Review
Extraordinary.... Mixes whimsy and hard truth in a way that's heartbreaking.... Pungently erotic, and as affectionate as it is acidic....a perfect modern southern gothic. (Mark Rozzo, The Los Angeles Times Book Review)
Review
A dark but resonant journey through the world of the Southern gothic. (Publishers Weekly)
Review
[A] lushly written novel of Deep Southern dream and landscape. (New York Times)
Review
In a Southern Gothic style reminiscent of Faulkner, Watson lays bare the lives and most intimate secrets of the richest and poorest families of Mercury, MS. Highly recommended. (Library Journal)
Review
Watson's keen eye for the human condition alone makes Heaven a worthwhile read, and you may find yourself accruing a particular type of knowledge that not even Faulkner could impart. (Literal Latte)
Review
Lovely, poignant, funny first novel, a book filled with fascinating, unpredictable, original characters. (The State)
Review
[A]n unforgettable story... . The accidents, the disappointments, the corrections, and the secrets each life contains are woven into a deeply sympathetic portrait of small town life at its worst and best. (The Advocate)
Review
Watson has written a novel at once intimate and epic, magical and reala dazzling Southern gothic in which love and hate claim equal hold on the human heart. (The Jackson Advocate)
Review
A fast-paced, myth-echoing, tragic-comic commentary on our modern lives.Lovely, poignant, funny first novel, a book filled with fascinating, unpredictable, original characters.[A]n unforgettable story... . The accidents, the disappointments, the corrections, and the secrets each life contains are woven into a deeply sympathetic portrait of small town life at its worst and best.His work may remind readers of William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, or Flannery O'Connor, but has a power—and a charm—all its own, more pellucid than the first, gentler than the second, and kinder than the third. --Merle Rubin
Review
Watson imbues his work with an elegance that sets it apart from the rest.Watson's keen eye for the human condition alone makes Heaven a worthwhile read, and you may find yourself accruing a particular type of knowledge that not even Faulkner could impart.Starred Review. Southern storytelling is alive and well in Watson's capable hands. An excellent debut.[A] lushly written novel of Deep Southern dream and landscape.In a Southern Gothic style reminiscent of Faulkner, Watson lays bare the lives and most intimate secrets of the richest and poorest families of Mercury, MS. Highly recommended.A dark but resonant journey through the world of the Southern gothic.A strange novel, this one—strange and uncommonly fine.Gimcrack storytelling...grounded by generous humanity.Watson has written a novel at once intimate and epic, magical and real—a dazzling Southern gothic in which love and hate claim equal hold on the human heart.An intensity reminiscent of Faulkner, a bleak humor that recalls Flannery O'Connor, a whimsy inspired by Eudora Welty and a spontaneity suggesting prime Barry Hannah.... reading The Heaven of Mercury certainly restores one's faith in Southern literature's ability to startle and surprise.[A] superb novel, graced with lush and exciting prose in the Southern high rhetorical tradition.A vivid mythology of a small Southern town that moves to a strange, electrifying beat.Extraordinary.... Mixes whimsy and hard truth in a way that's heartbreaking.... Pungently erotic, and as affectionate as it is acidic....a perfect modern southern gothic. --Mark Rozzo
Review
Vividly peopled, full of surprises, The Heaven of Mercury is a deeply satisfying novel. --Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture
Review
A novel so fine you don't want it to ever end. --Larry Brown, author of Father and Son and Fay
Review
The Heaven of Mercury is a tragicomic story of missed opportunities and unjust necessities that wittily explores the souls of its highly colorful cast of characters. It is suffused with an almost savage lyricism that illumines every accurate detail and nuance of place and speech. The light this novel casts is so brilliant it makes even its own shadows luminous. Brad Watson has struck a fresh and thrilling note. --Fred Chappell, author of Look Back All the Green Valley
Review
The best thing to come out of the South since A Confederacy of Dunces. --Gregory Rabassa, translator of One Hundred Years of Solitude and other novels
Review
Sort of a calm wail. Each page a deep pleasure. -- Barry Hannah, author of
Review
Sort of a calm wail. Each page a deep pleasure. --Barry Hannah, author of Airships, Ray, and Yonder Stands Your Orphan
Synopsis
Brad Watson's first novel was eagerly awaited after his breathtaking, award-winning debut collection of short stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men. In The Heaven of Mercury, Watson fulfills that literary promise with a humorous and jaundiced eye. 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.
Synopsis
Shortlisted for the 2002 National Book Award in Fiction: a dark, riotous Southern novel of sex, death, and transformation.
About the Author
Brad Watson teaches creative writing at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. His first collection, Last Days of the Dog-Men, won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts & Letters; his first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.