Crooked Heart of Mercy (Livingston)

The Crooked Heart of Mercy 
Billie Livingston, 2016
HarperCollins
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062413772


Summary
Ben wakes up in a hospital with a hole in his head he can’t explain.

What he can remember he’d rather forget. Like how he’d spent nights as a limo driver for the wealthy and debauched . . . how he and his wife, Maggie, drifted apart in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy . . . how his little brother, Cola, got in over his head with loan sharks circling.

Maggie is alone. Again. With bills to pay and Ben in a psych ward, she must return to work. But who would hire her in the state she’s in?

And just as Maggie turns to her brother, Francis, the Internet explodes with a video of his latest escapade. The headline? Drunk Priest Propositions Cops.

Francis is an unlikely priest with a drinking problem and little interest  in celibacy. A third DUI, a looming court date. . . . When Maggie takes him in, he knows he may be down to his last chance. And his best shot at healing might lay in helping Maggie and Ben reconnect—against all odds. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—November 23, 1965
• Where—Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• Education—N/A
• AWards—Danuta Gleed Literary Award; CBC Bookie Award
• Currently—lives in Vancourer, British Columbia


Billie Livingston is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Livingston grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver and is married to American actor Tim Kelleher.

Her critically acclaimed first novel, Going Down Swinging (2000), was followed by The Chick at the Back of the Church (2001), a poetry book that was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award.

Her second novel, Cease to Blush (2006), was chosen as one of the year's best books by The Globe and Mail, January Magazine, and The Tyee. Her novel, One Good Hustle (2012), was long-listed for the 2012 Giller Prize and selected by the Globe and Mail, January Magazine, and Toronto's Now Magazine as one of the year's best books.

Livingston's short story collection, Greedy Little Eyes (2010), was cited by the Globe and Mail as one of 2010's best books and by the Georgia Straight as one of the fifteen most outstanding books of the year. In 2011 Greedy Little Eyes won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for Best Short Story Collection as well as the CBC's Bookie Award.

In 2013, her story, "The Trouble with Marlene," was made into the 2014 feature film, Sitting on the Edge of Marlene, directed by Ana Valine, and starring Suzanne Clement, Paloma Kwiatkowski, and Callum Keith Rennie.

In addition to publications in journals and magazines around the world, Livingston's poetry has appeared in textbooks and on public transit through the TransLink "Poetry in Transit" program. She has received fellowships from The Banff Centre, MacDowell Colony, Escape to Create (Seaside, Florida), Ucross Foundation and Omi International Arts Center. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/12/2016 .)

Book Reviews
Livingston avoids cliché and caricature, and is able to investigate the necessity of belief in all its forms without descending into the didactic. She has a real knack for voice, bouncing back and forth... gracefully and believably. Further her light-handed investigation of religion and its place in our lives – especially in crisis – is wholly refreshing and open-hearted.
Toronto Globe and Mail


In , her stellar fourth novel... Livingston immediately sets up a pressing question: can these lostThe Crooked Heart of Mercy souls overcome their tragedy and, if so, how? Tender, quirky, and sporadically quite comic, her answer is fruitful as well as a delight to follow. Emotional but not sentimental and sharp without being cynical, the story maintains an impressive balance.
Vancouver Sun


Jarring, poignant and laced with a brand of dark humour, the book turns the accidental death of a child into a meditation on grief and recovery. In Livingston’s searing story, recovery, tenuous as it often is, is hard-earned, a glimpse, with no guarantees, of the price to be paid for renewal…. full of surprises; its well-drawn characters, their close-to-the-edge dilemmas, the ways in which they seek an elusive recuperation, are sharply depicted.
London Free Press


Although you will be deeply discomfited, you will also be amply rewarded....Most importantly, by taking often overused and amorphous terms such as ‘forgiveness’ and ‘spirituality’ and bringing them down to earth, Livingston allows Ben and Maggie to come to a stumbling understanding of what it means to survive day to day, transcend terrible trauma, and to eventually regain the capacity to give and receive love.
Toronto Star


The Crooked Heart of Mercy is brave stuff featuring a trio of characters rarely seen or described so well as Ben, his wife Maggie and her drinkin’ brother, a priest named Francis... How each comes to deal (and heal) is the stuff of this indelible novel, one that lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned.
Sun Times


Courageously renegade (and hilarious) ....The Crooked Heart of Mercy is a gem. Much like a big sis who prepares a young’n for the harsh world, Livingston swiftly kicks the legs out from under you, then catches you in her arms.
Washington Independent Review


Forgiveness—and the attendant notions of grace and mercy—are central to the novel, and to the author’s own attitude, which is steeped in empathy for fallen and fallible characters...This, beyond the laughter and the tears, is what seems to be motivating Livingston, both as an author and a human being: the sense of compassion that needs to endure if we are to survive the world’s depredations.
Quill and Quire


Billie Livingston may be Canada's best-kept literary secret. Her books are consistently fascinating, witty, gut-wrenching reads and The Crooked Heart of Mercy just might be her best yet. It brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters... Don't miss it if: You've ever found comfort in the last person you expected.
W Dish


An intricate meditation on grief and forgiveness.... How individuals fail and succeed in their efforts to be caring remains Livingston’s enduring theme.
Georgia Straight


The key to Billie Livingston's fiction is its potent emotional core. She always makes sure you can empathize with her characters, who are often troubled souls searching for personal connection or, in the case of her newest book, reconnection.... Livingston brings these emotional crises to life, never resorting to cliches.... [D]iving into the author’s emotional vortex is a powerful experience.
NOW (Toronto)


From award-winning Canadian novelist Livingston, this is a beautiful and insightful paean to the human spirit and how it can heal.
Booklist


[A]n achingly fragile portrait of two battered and bruised people....[but] Livingston beautifully teases out the bitter humor needed to endure the long shadows of grief. These hearts heal with scar tissue.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. "How do you fill a hole? If you take from the whole to fill a hole, is anything made whole?" How do Ben’s words reflect the themes of trauma and recovery in the novel?

2. Both Ben and Maggie feel extremely guilty over Frankie’s death. How do they deal with this guilt in their everyday lives?

3. Given that Maggie shows disdain for religion many times during the novel, why do you think she turns to the church in her times of need? (For instance, when it concerns her son.)

4. Why did the author choose to have the narrative jump back and forth between different time lines and events? How does this serve the novel and how would it be different if it read chronologically?

5. Why does Lucy find such solace in the United Church of Spiritualism? Why does this bother Maggie?

6. According to psychologists, dissociation from reality is a coping mechanism for dealing with extreme stress or grief and can manifest in different ways. In what ways do Ben and Maggie each dissociate?

7. Do you think that Ben’s dissociation existed before his self-injury and hospital stay? When and why do you think it started?

8. Does Francis feel guilt regarding his sexual orientation or is he comfortable with who he is? Where do you think his tendency toward substance abuse originated?

9. In what ways does the author use the narrative voice to connect the reader to Ben’s experience? Do you think that Ben is a more or a less reliable narrator when he is outside of his own body?

10. How are the themes of religion and spirituality explored in the novel? Discuss the differences between the characters who are more religious and those who are more spiritual.

11. The chapters of the novel alternate between the narratives of Maggie and Ben. The time lines of their respective narratives do not coincide until one of the very last chapters. How do you think this relates to the development of the characters and their relationship?

12. Ben and Cola each have very complicated relationships with their father. Do you think they love him or do they simply feel obligated toward him? Why?

13. How do Ben and Maggie each figure out that they need each other to heal from their emotional trauma? Did Dr. Lambert play any part in Ben’s recovery?

14. How does Ben’s view of the physical world change when he comes out of his dissociative state? How does his attitude change? Why do you think this is?

15. At the end of the novel, are Ben and Maggie finally "made whole"?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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