Little Mercies Original/E

by Heather Gudenkauf

[Leah]

Heather Gudenkauf is one of those authors who is said to be a bit like Jodi Picoult and having read one of her previous novels – These Things Hidden, I can quite agree. Both write emotional fiction that get you thinking. So I was quite excited to receive a copy of Heather’s latest novel Little Mercies. It sounded completely fascinating, and social workers aren’t regularly featured in the kind of books I read (sadly; they do a valuable job, and although it doesn’t always feature happy stories, it is something I like to read about because I very much admire people who help kids get away from bad homes. Without social workers, those kids would continue to suffer…). Even more so to read about a social worker who makes a mistake and it was indeed a very interesting novel.

One thing I’ll say right off the bat, is that part of me felt that Ellen was poorly treated. While I could see her boss’s reasoning, I just felt it was quite heavy handed that she was treated so badly, and things escalated so quickly for what was an innocent mistake. I know that leaving a baby in a car is awful, and could have ended much worse than it did, but an accident is an accident. It was heart-breaking for Ellen to know what she did; it tore my heart when she was told she couldn’t see Avery, and while I do get that proper process had to be followed, part of wanted a bit more leniency than was shown throughout the novel. Investigate Ellen, yes, absolutely, but keeping her from her kid was cold-hearted, and made me sad.

The most surprising part of the novel for me was young Jenny. I didn’t expect her story, but there it was anyway. She’s a young girl, ten years of age, and her Dad moves jobs more than most have hot dinners, and on the day they’re supposed to leave for Iowa, right as Jenny is waiting on the bus, her Dad is jumped, and she ends up travelling alone to Iowa, coming upon a kind waitress, Maudene, who takes her in. I found her story fascinating. For such a young girl, she was very street smart, very clever, very alert and bright. I liked her charm. Her story definitely lifted my spirits, seeing her with Maudene, seeing her learn to trust another adult, after a very difficult start to her life, and it was lovely. Yes, there were bad bits, but all in all, it was nice to see her Dad cared about her so much and that Maudene – a total stranger to this girl, was willing to take her in. It made me once again believe in the kindness of strangers.

Little Mercies was such a fascinating read, so awful to see what happened to Ellen, but inevitable because what do you do when a social worker makes a mistake? It was hard, so hard, but understandable. Jenny’s story was a nice ray of sunshine, obviously sad what happened to her Dad, but hopeful that someone so kind would take her in, and not leave her wandering the Iowa streets! Gudenkauf is such a great writer, evoking so many emotions and I can see why she’s such a popular author. I must get to her earlier novels that I’ve managed to miss, as she clearly knows what she’s writing about, and I loved reading about Jenny, and I felt so torn about Ellen, but hopeful this mistake wouldn’t cost her everything, most importantly, her baby. It’s a very powerful novel, and will resonate with plenty of mothers who fear landing in Ellen’s situation themselves.