Mary Cyr

by David Adams Richards

A fresh new novel from a Canadian literary legend--this time with an extraordinary and unforgettable woman protagonist who is sure to become one of the great characters in our literature.

Mary Cyr opens in Mexico, just as a disaster strikes a small town: a coal-mine has collapsed, with thirteen men trapped inside. Less than forty-eight hours later, the authorities summarily decide to abandon all hope of finding survivors and seal up the mine entrance--willfully oblivious to the half-dozen souls still breathing below ground. Shortly after that, a thirteen-year-old Mexican boy, Victor, is discovered dead in the hotel room of a Canadian visitor--a 45-year-old woman, and heiress to a vast fortune, who goes by the name Mary Cyr.

Thus begins this shocking, brilliant and compelling novel--a late-career tour de force by one of our most unique and powerful writers. In his last couple of novels, David Adams Richards has widened the scope of his vision and his world, taking us into far-flung countries and lives even as his beloved territory of New Brunswick's Miramichi remains his touchstone, the spot to which all his stories return. In Mary Cyr, the unwinding tale will take us from a harsh jail cell in Mexico, where Mary Cyr is imprisoned, deep into Canadian police officer John Delano's past, and even further into the murky depths of a wealthy New Brunswick family whose ties to mining, newspapers and a host of other interests lead to the highest corridors of power. At the heart of this maelstrom lies a woman who is compromised and confused, but also poignant, wounded and well-intentioned: the beautiful and tragic Mary Cyr.

Genres: Canada, Fiction, Historical Fiction

432 pages, Hardcover

Published April 10, 2018

About the author

David Adams Richards (born 17 October 1950) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet.

Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, Richards left St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, one course shy of completing a B.A. Richards has been a writer-in-residence at various universities and colleges across Canada, including the University of New Brunswick.

Richards has received numerous awards including 2 Gemini Awards for scriptwriting for Small Gifts and "For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down", the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the Canadian Authors Association Award for his novel Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace. Richards is one of only three writers to have won in both the fiction and non-fiction categories of the Governor General's Award. He won the 1988 fiction award for Nights Below Station Street and the 1998 non-fiction award for Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi. He was also a co-winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for Mercy Among the Children.

In 1971, he married the former Peggy MacIntyre. They have two sons, John Thomas and Anton Richards, and currently reside in Toronto.

John Thomas was born in 1989 in Saint John, New Brunswick.

The Writers' Federation of New Brunswick administers an annual David Adams Richards Award for Fiction.

Richards' papers are currently housed at the University of New Brunswick.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I have been guilty all my life,” Mary Cyr said. “But I am no longer guilty – I will not be guilty anymore. You see, I saw more and much deeper than other people, so I was often accused of their crimes, but now I will be free.”

I have to start by saying that I am a longtime David Adams Richards fan – I've read plenty more of his books than my Goodreads account would show – and with Mary Cyr he once again proves himself to be a writer of maturity, gravity, and unrivalled (for a Canadian public figure) iconoclasm. This wasn't a book to read quickly, and once again, Richards uses frequent coincidence to prove that we are fated towards tragedy, so I can understand its weakish reception here on Goodreads. As for me, I savoured this read, beginning to breathtaking end.

It was all very strange how it happened, but in this world, nothing in fact was more natural. It seemed all very devious, but in this world, nothing was devious. It seemed very unbecoming, but in this world what was unbecoming? One knows that in this world, from the Peloponnesian Wars on, no deviousness was left unused.

Mary Cyr opens with the title character sitting in a Mexican prison, apparently charged with the murder of a young boy. When the local authorities realised that Mary was a member of the billionaire Canadian family that was part owner of the town's coal mine that recently collapsed, they felt the need to charge her with something, and even though it would seem that no one really believes that she killed this Victor, everyone from the local criminal element to the politically ambitious find it expeditious to pin the crime on her. Mary's old friend (and main character from Richards' last novel, Principles to Live By), retired police detective John Delano, is sent down to Mexico by her family to secure her release, and between their conversations and Delano's private ruminations, Mary's sad life is laid bare. The format of Mary Cyr can be challenging: Divided into fourteen parts, the first makes reference to events and people from Mary's life without much explanation. But as the novel goes along, these events and people are revisited and explained in greater detail, and every time you think you understand how something was for her, some new detail is layered on in a later part that shifts that understanding. Too, as the narrative proceeds, greater insight is given into the motivations of the local Mexican people, and it becomes obvious that events have been set in motion that will be nigh impossible to stop. As for the character of Mary: it was strange that this unloved orphan cousin from the unimportant branch of one of the Maritimes' richest families was described by her aunt as not quite normal after a childhood blow to the head, and yet both Delano and the omniscient narrator refer to her as insightful and brilliant – all while Mary herself speaks with strange verbal tics, makes impulsive and self-destructive decisions, and rarely has acted in her own self interest. I liked the strangeness of her character – and not least of all because being from a super-rich family (which made its money the old-fashioned – but now denigrated – ways; through forestry, oil, and mines), every personal tragedy in Mary's life has been open to public, mean-spirited criticism; culminating in a global newspaper/internet schadenfreude over her current situation. What hope for Mary?

As in previous novels, Richards makes many literary references here (incorporating Calvino, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare), and he once again makes many references to the Canadian literati: taking a swipe at Michael Ondaatje, apparently referencing Alistair MacLeod as “a Percy rock of a man who bagpipes his way along the crags of Cape Breton”, and denigrating himself as “the Miramichi writer who she liked but who she could never read ”(on a more positive note, Mary does refer to Jack Hodgins – whose Broken Ground I have read and reviewed – as a great, grand person). Richards keeps to the Canadiana by referencing pipeline squabbles, former prime ministers, Lord Beaverbrook, and the CBC; and he keeps this story related to his own world with appearances by John Delano, Markus Paul, and the River of the Broken-Hearted. This is a writer of maturity and confidence, and as for the iconoclasm, it's sure to provoke the progressives in Ottawa:

• Those who yelled loudest against her when they had the chance did not now utter a word to ask forgiveness for themselves. They were very quiet now. The Cyr pipeline that had been damaged by those who drove to the pipeline in cars that used oil, and slept in houses that needed it, and wore clothes that contained it, now issued not one statement about her. The university profs as well who spoke of progress – and said that the Cyr empire was one of failure and disaster, sitting in buildings some of which were donated by Cyr money – did not now come back to reinvestigate themselves.

• The great fortune for Nigel was that people who had very well-known CBC Radio talk shows never looked beyond the fashionable way to take the moral higher ground by pretending concern over the Cyr dynasty. In fact Nigel's whole life and the lives of his colleagues had been filled with misguided ambition and misplaced admiration. And this is what allowed them to protest their tenure, to go on strike while their students at the university, who had paid their money, were hostage to their demands; to look miffed when people did not see their worth, to become parasites on First Nations causes that would gain them attention, and to prey on the naïveté and idealism of the young.

• It was the beginning of her war against conformity – but of a very specialized sort of war – a kind of clandestine one. One where she was the silent observer of the disastrous world. That is, from then on, she distrusted women as much as men – she disliked their easy acceptance of role-playing, of bogus sisterhood and victimhood that university courses not only taught but encouraged – found them just as shameful in their pettiness and malevolence toward those who were cast aside...But she knew too how men used women like these, pandered to them in politics and literature in the way middle class had to always coddle their own. And she hated the men for their lies every bit as much. She hated those who used the First Nations as well, for they formed the same kind of manufactured pieties. She realized listening to First Nations leaders speak that too many of them expected this and needed it, so both they and whites could use the tragedy of the past to embellish their pretenses – and if you stared them in the face and told them so, told them that their victimhood was now obscenely corporate, they would counter with the plight of those reserves they themselves had never been to, and declare you a racist.

I am pleased that since his last novel, David Adams Richards has been appointed to the Canadian Senate; I like the idea of this contrary voice having its place in the Red Chamber. I am also not surprised that, for likely this very reason, such a fine novel was overlooked for the Giller Prize this year. This challenging read certainly pays off in the end.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders)]

I tried, I did. I gave it a valiant effort - I tried to just settle in, breathe and get into the story. But I just couldn't do it - I was either going into a coma or was being really frustrated and annoyed with the over use of, "that is". "That is..." would appear sometimes 3x on one page. I was ready to hurl the book against the wall - didn't the editor have those feelings too??

I tried to let Mary Cyr's story envelop me, there were a few moments where she made me want to continue, but I found those moments were too often repeated. I was reading the same moments over and over again. I couldn't see myself reading through 420 pages of those same moments, or, that is, I was bored to tears. :-(

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Adams Richards has been my favourite literary writer for several years. His stories focused on the hard lives of the impoverished and downtrodden people in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick. In his preceding book he began to spread out his setting to other parts of New Brunswick and the world. The novel Principles to Live By featured an older police officer, John Delaney,and how against all odds he solved an old mystery.

The author’s writing is brilliant, sometimes sublime and soothing, sometimes shocking with always a touch of melancholy. His characters are unique and unforgettable.

Mary Cyr is an enigmatic, beautiful, very wealthy woman with a scandalous past. She has been misunderstood, and some of her most sordid history has been concocted by her enemies, and some embellished by herself. She has always held strong opinions, but these shift frequently. Her extended family excuses her most outrageous comments and behaviour as due to a head injury as a child and the loss of her parents. The family has a wealth of billions of dollars in oil, coal, newspapers, shipping and other far flung enterprises. Growing up with relatives in New Brunswick, her closest family ally was cousin Perley, a fat, unattractive, reclusive and ineffective young man. Mary showed much compassion and charity, but also schemed on getting revenge for past insults and mistreatment.

The story begins in a town in Mexico where Mary is in jail shortly after her arrival. John Delano has been sent by her family to protect her. Mary arrived just after a run down coal mine, a small part of the family business, exploded trapping 13 miners. The townspeople believe that the Cyr enterprises was negligent or criminal in not funding necessary repairs on the mine. In fact a large sum of money was wired from the WTC on 911 just before the buildings exploded and the money seems to have vanished into cyberspace. The Mexican coal mine was sealed up a few days after its explosion and the miners lost. Mary is an easy scapegoat for the peoples’ outrage.

Shortly after her arrival a murdered 14 year old boy was found in her room and his younger brother is missing. They have discovered that Mary was carrying several million dollars into Mexico on a private plane.

Now the large number of new characters starts to become overwhelming; The Mexican police investigating the murder of the boy and possibly his younger brother, the lawyers preparing for Mary’s trial, people connected with the dead miners or the murdered youth found in her room who taunt Mary and consider her a ‘devil woman’ and a predator. There are also members of a criminal syndicate controlling drugs and human trafficking.

The plot is complex, set in the present with a Mary in jail, and always returning to past incidents in her life in New Brunswick and Europe. Newspapers are filled with stories of her sordid past, being often exaggerations or sensational ‘false news’, further inflaming hatred towards her. The convoluted style in no way interfered with the flow of the story.

Where I did find difficulty was with the abundance of characters, most being essential to the plot. So many names to keep straight! I wish a family tree had been included along with their connections to the business dealings. Then I also wished for an additional glossary for Mexican characters. Very complicated story.

The climax of the story is strong, brutal and unexpected. Highly recommended, but it would be valuable to read some of the proceeding books as well, especially Principles to Live By to get more insight into the personality of police officer John Delaney. The author’s prior books which I have read all were rated a rare 4.5 to 5 stars by me. Mary Cyr is an unusual and unforgettable character.
4.5 stars

[Marion Lougheed · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is brilliant. The politics are a little heavy-handed, but Mary Cyr is such a fascinating character that she makes up for it. That being said, for me personally, this book could've been shorter. It felt like more of the same as it went on, until things finally wound up in an interesting climax. Would recommend for lovers of literary writing who can't find anything else to read, but there are probably other things more worth your while.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throughout a 40-year career of undisputed brilliance that has brought him universal acclaim and awards too numerous to count, David Adams Richards has proven himself a master chronicler of humanity’s tortured journey through a confusing and unforgiving modern world. Very often his characters find themselves in morally untenable or dangerous situations, brought about by their own weakness in the face of temptation, or through gullibility or trusting too easily, or through agencies beyond their control. Many are trying to elude the long reach of past misdeeds and poor choices. His men tend to be weak and indecisive, his women strong-willed but misguided. Everyone is unlucky. Richards’ novels, which veer toward tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, are populated by morally compromised individuals facing impossible decisions. More often than not, they are seeking ways to do the right thing, but inevitably the odds are stacked against them. In Mary Cyr Richards presents a character whose fatal flaw is an impulsive and secretive nature combined with a caring disposition that time and again compels her to defend those who are disinclined or unable to defend themselves. Mary is the heiress of a New Brunswick family that has amassed a fortune in real estate, shipping, mining, oil and other ventures—her financial and ancestral pedigree is recounted in detail in the novel’s opening chapters. But, though wealthy, Mary has not led an easy or simple life. For one thing, she has been hounded by death: losing her father in a plane crash, her mother to alcoholism, her son to an accident for which Mary must bear some responsibility, two husbands to misfortune and old age, and two close childhood friends, one to illness and another to misadventure. For her entire life she has been beset by restlessness, unsure of her role in the family, plagued by guilt and lingering resentments. The event around which the novel is framed is a mining disaster in Oathoa, Mexico; the mine is part of the Cyr family holdings. Mary, in her forties when the novel’s main action takes place, ventures to Mexico in the wake of the disaster carrying almost $2M in cash with the intention of helping the families of the dead miners. What she doesn’t realize is that she is venturing into a stinking morass of corruption involving the mine’s president, his avaricious and ruthless wife, along with members of the local police force and government officials, all of whom are connected to an international criminal enterprise engaged in drug trafficking, prostitution and murder. Mary’s good intentions mean little once the body of a boy is found in her room at the resort where she is staying. A convenient scapegoat, she is charged in the boy’s death on nothing but supposition, jailed, and denied bail as a flight risk. The tale that Richards conjures from this setup is complex, intricate and often harrowing. Mary’s family sends former bodyguard John Delano to Mexico to dig into the circumstances surrounding Mary’s arrest and try to get her freed. But John’s investigation is impeded at every step by those whose interests are served by keeping Mary behind bars. John has his own complicated personal history, closely intertwined with the Cyr family and Mary in particular. The story proceeds at a measured pace, with twists and turns aplenty, frequent shifts of perspective, and much exploration of the past. We are also introduced to a sizable cast of characters: residents of Oathoa who are suffering because of the mine disaster and who are drawn into Mary’s circle, as well as police, thugs, and Cyr family members, friends and acquaintances. One element of the story that Richards returns to again and again is Mary’s reputation as the black sheep of the family, the media’s fascination with her sometimes indiscreet and often puzzling behaviour, and unfortunate decisions she has made that have embarrassed the family and reduced her life and exploits to tabloid fodder. Mary herself is often presented as the misunderstood object of prurient public curiosity. More than anything else it is this reputation for bad behaviour that, as she awaits her fate in a Mexican jail, plays into the hands of her enemies and makes it possible for them to spread salacious rumours about her that are accepted as gospel truth. Mary Cyr, the novel, is compelling up to a point—events engage our interest, the suspense builds, and the chilling narrative raises intriguing questions about culpability and redemption. But there are also moments when the author seems intent on pushing his characters and his story where he wants them to go. This is most evident in instances when new characters appear out of nowhere, ciphers with no emotional depth introduced for the sole purpose of adding a wrinkle to the story and moving the action in a pre-determined direction. In other of his novels, we observe, tormented by suspense, as Richards allows his characters to walk, knowingly or in ignorance, toward a tragic fate that seems natural and inevitable. In this novel, Richards the writer is too obviously guiding the action toward a desired denouement. The manipulation can be transparent and heavy handed, with the result that the novel falls short of being totally satisfying. David Adams Richards has certainly earned the right to do what he wants on the printed page, and there are always rewards to be found in reading whatever he writes. Mary Cyr is no exception. Despite occasional sermonizing, some predictability, and the fact that it depicts human behaviour at its most ugly and craven, the novel is intensely readable. But to anyone approaching this author for the first time, the best introduction to his work remains the novels that comprise the Miramichi Trilogy.

[Ted Dettweiler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came across David Adams Richards when I borrowed '"Nights below Station Street" from the Preston library 30 years ago. If Wikipedia's listing of novels is complete there have been 12 more since that one and I have read 10 of these plus 3 of his shorter list of non-fiction books ("God Is", "Lines on the Water" and "Hockey Dreams")

I think the majority of the heroes of Adams Richards books have been on the "poor" side of the economic spectrum and quite often there is a collective evil in the local community that is the scourge of these heroes. I've often felt that Adams Richards Miramichi home town might not be quite so proud or foolish to post the traditional "Home of fill in the blank (preferably a hockey player)" because the reader not already familiar with New Brunswick might think Adams Richards is being a little hard on his local community in the way that they all seem to gang up on the weak. A friend of mine, originally from the Miramichi, offered her opinion that unfortunately this author describes the community that my friend knew growing up unusually well.

In this latest novel set in Mexico, Adams Richards finds a community whose people are as repressive as a collectivity against the hero of the novel, Mary Cyr, as any of the New Brunswick communities in the author's previous novels. To add insult to injury for Mary Cyr, academics and journalists the world over add their spit in the face to the heroine who is in jail in Mexico for a crime she didn't commit. The main difference from past novels, besides the setting, is that this heroine is McCain or Irving family level rich and yet has faced many of the same persecutions throughout her storied life as the traditional Adams Richards hero or heroine.

There is a strong narrative voice in this novel that could only be Adams Richards himself that is perhaps a tad too strong in blatantly condemning the academics in our Canadian universities. At the same time, this narrator expounds the positive benefits that faith in God (something that the academics would tend to pan in all their studies) brings to individuals and communities. For a more direct treatment of this subject I can recommend Adams Richards published essay "God Is". At one point the narrator all but intrudes to tell us what this novel is about when the heroine asks "Why is it that I have lived?" The response: "That she had lived to show the falseness and tragedy of scapegoats".

Perhaps you may be thinking "Do I really need to read this novel self-described as a tragedy of scapegoats?". Yes, and more than some sort of self-scourging exercise, you'll find in it a redemptive end to the tragedy and a page-turner to boot.

If you are starting with David Adams Richards I might suggest these novels which, barring re-read revisions, stand as my favourites: "Mercy Among the Children", "Friends of Meager Fortune" and "The Lost Highway"

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richards writing is so beautiful, his style so unique. Book after book, he makes me care for characters that I thought I wouldn't like, sometimes shouldn't like. But he loves his characters and I can't help but be drawn into their lives.
Also, how is it that such a sad ending can leave me thinking, "That was beautiful, fucking beautiful. " Excuse the language. Or maybe don't.

[Susan Chow-Dukhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Cyr is arrested in a small town in Mexico for the murder of 14 year old Victor Sonora. While the evidence against her is weak, the case escalates when it is discovered that Mary is an heiress and has holdings in a local coal mine that has collapsed, resulting in multiple deaths.
While Mary's life from childhood onward is told, the time line of her life events jumps back and forth throughout the book. The first half of the novel was a bit slow, as Mary is presented as the poor misunderstood rich girl. Although we're told the reason for Mary's behaviour and the truth behind the gossip, I did not feel a strong emotional attachment to the character.
The novel picks up in the second half, which concentrates more on the interaction of and with the Mexican characters and the progression of the story line, rather than dwelling on the past.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Adams Richards has long been one of my favourite Canadian authors. His Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul I have designated as one of the books all Canadians should read (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2...). His latest novel, Mary Cyr, focuses on a minor character from Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul; also appearing is John Delano who is the protagonist of Principles to Live By (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2...). Neither of the previous books has to be read in order to understand Mary Cyr.

Mary Cyr, the 45-year-old heiress of a multi-million-dollar fortune is charged with the murder of a young boy while she is in Mexico. Though she is innocent, she becomes a scapegoat because the Cyr family, through its Tarsco Mining Company, invested in a coal mine where 13 men recently died after it collapsed. Amigo, the Mexican company which owns the mine, was given $14 million by the Cyrs for safety upgrades but Amigo executives misappropriated all the funds. It is, however, easier to blame the Cyr family, rich foreigners, than investigate the corruption of the local officials. Mary is seen as a representative of the family, “a woman who on paper was partial owner of this mine” (8) and so the locals transfer all their anger onto her.

There is little credible evidence against Mary and “Tallagonga [the prosecutor] had no intention of prosecuting until she found out who Mary Cyr was. Then they filed the charge, called her guilty and looked for a lifelong prison sentence because she was on the board of Tarsco Mining” (82). And Mary is a perfect scapegoat because her behaviour in the past leaves her compromised. For example, she was implicated in the deaths of two people. And then there are the rumours about her seducing engaged men and her son being fathered by Mary’s beloved grandfather.

The focus of the book is revealing the truth behind the exaggerated rumours and sensationalized gossip. Through flashbacks and entries in Mary’s diary, the image of a deeply wounded woman emerges. From a young age, she was largely misunderstood; she was also bullied and abused and betrayed. “She was always alone – or nearly always alone” (63). This does not mean she is innocent; she often seeks revenge for injustices committed against her or those she cared about. For instance, she does indeed seduce an engaged man but she does so to take revenge on Marianne, the man’s fiancée, “the girl from long ago who had teased Denise Albert [Mary’s childhood friend] to distraction because Denise had wanted to dance one dance with Marianne’s beau” (361). It is emphasized, however, that though Mary “was a good hater, . . . in her compassion she could hate no one at all. No one at all!” (119) and “In fact at the end, she could not hate a soul” (269). She takes revenge on three girls who tormented her, her cousin, and a friend, but afterwards, “she sat in a corner, tears in her eyes. She knew it was a terrible thing to do – in fact she wrote in her diary it was the worst victory she had ever had” (280).

The book examines the process of scapegoating. In the end, it is suggested that Mary “had lived to show the falseness and tragedy of scapegoats.” Eventually, those guilty of using her as a scapegoat would “as they had with so many through the ages, from Joan of Arc to Anne Frank, and with so many in camps and prisons and dark places of the soul, and with so many of our prophets to whom they would wail and beg forgiveness and forget they had ever played a part in their fate” (369). Mary herself says, “’I saw more and much deeper than other people, so I was often accused of their crimes’” (352). Sometimes, like in the Joan of Arc parallel at the end, the imagery is a little heavy-handed. It is also mentioned that Mary stuffs newspapers in her clothes so “her whole life of scandal [is] stapled to her chest” (417) but “Underneath all of it her naked body was shiny white” (418).

As in his other books, the author lashes out at those he disdains. Mary rails against people “using today’s wiles to draw and quarter those poor sons of bitches who lived in another time and bourn us” (192). There are comments about Canada: “As always in Canada, one is not caught between two worlds but between three or four – not between two competing interests but a multitude” (66). The author even dares to compare French language concerns in Quebec to pre-occupation with Aryan purity in Germany: “’they are after French purity like others cherished certain Germanic qualities. Oh, they won’t say that, but their politicians will demonstrate it. Someday I bet they will have laws in Quebec against having English on signs – and call it progress’” (68). David Adams Richards, who writes about the Miramichi, even indicates how he feels as a writer: “Years ago the Miramichi writer who she liked but who she could never read told her that they both were the kind of people who did not belong” (379).

There are some coincidences that are troubling. A guest at the Mexican resort where Mary is staying turns out to have a connection to Mary from her childhood. Perhaps Mary had kept track of this person, as she was wont to do of others, or perhaps the coincidence of meeting her years later “’is the will of God’” (372)? And then there’s the incident with “that bottle” (363); how often does a bottle with a message find its target across an ocean?!

David Adams Richards has a deep understanding of the human condition and human behaviour. This is evident in this novel as in his others. Mary Cyr is not perfect but it is worth reading; in some ways it is like a detective story in which the goal is to reveal the real Mary Cyr. And it warns us against judging others on the basis of superficialities or stereotypes or fake news and against singling out people for unmerited blame.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

[Mar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 David Adams Richards writes extremely well and I always appreciate the power of his stories. Hard to make a higher recommendation, not on quality but because I struggle with the darkness and the way "fate" seems to play out without a lot of hope in his novels. They are true to life, however, and that adds to the painfulness of reading. Choices we make do have long lasting consequences on those around us--loved ones and those we barely know. Mary Cyr is innocent, but set up to be the scapegoat for a murder in Mexico. The novel tells how she came to be in a Mexican prison and gives her family history.
Powerful story of brokenness and pain. Shows how powerless we can be even when our intentions are good and how quickly things can spiral out of control even if we are not completely malicious.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Mary Cyr, who was sent to prison in Mexico after a 13-year-old boy was found dead and she was accused of his murder. Mary came from a family of great wealth, a worth of about 380 million. She grew up in New Brunswick, which adds a nice touch to the story.

We learn about her English and French heritage and all the difficulties she went through while growing up. People took advantage of her due to her family's wealth and her naivety. She received many "wounds" while growing up and her strong personality and will seems to make matters worse at times. Mary finds out that she can not trust or rely on other people.

Her family was an easy target due to their extreme wealth. There are many misunderstandings that get blown out of proportion and made into a whole different story by both the media and other people. I found at times, that this story made me think of a few similarities to what is going on in U.S. politics these days.

John Delano is hired by Mary's father to keep an eye out for her, and he does so for many years. He sees the unfairness of how she is treated from a young age onwards, and tries very hard to help her, particularly when she is in Mexico.

I found this book exhausting to read, it was a long, drawn out story for me. There was a lot of back and forth in time, and a choppiness, which caused me great confusion as I felt lost at times and had to back track to figure out what was happening. The constant back and forth became dizzying for me, and it took me a lot longer than usual to read this book. I felt like quitting several times.

There are several difficult scenes to read throughout including graphic violence, cruelty to animals, children and adults, police corruption, political corruption, greed, suffering, ruthlessness. Very dark at times, sad and heartbreaking.

Thank you to Penguin Random House of Canada and the Goodreads program for sending me an ARC of this book.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like this read much at all. Had read Mercy Among the Children in the past and it was okay so when my aunt gave me this book to read I accepted it because of the author. But it was a disappointing read.

The story follows the tragic life of Mary Cyr and her life as seen as well by her friend John Delano. Mary Cyr comes from a family of immeasurable wealth made on forests, oil and paper. The wealth is just too over the top to be believable to me as the reader however - I questioned it every time it came up - too excessive - and that then became a distraction to my reading.

And the tragedies that involved the deaths of Mary's best friend, her dog, her son, a husband and then herself at the end. The tragic death of her father, then the alcoholism and death of her mother.

The telling of Mary's story jumps around a lot and at times I found hard to follow. Divided into Fourteen Parts and each part divided into numbered sections, I couldn't make any sense of the Parts - what distinguished one from the next, nor make sense of the numbered sections. They were distractions to me as a reader and could have been left out completely. Unless I am entirely missing a key part they play in the telling!

I did appreciate the author's skill at portraying many aspects of Mary Cyr - the depth of her hatreds, her kindness and compassion, her intelligence and ability to find the truth in situations, her sense of justice, her fierce loyalty and protection of the underdog, and her acceptance of her lot in life - right to the end.

And I did appreciate the role of John Delano in the story and his love and protection of Mary Cyr throughout her life.

It is a story about seeking justice amid deep greed. I found however that I had to read 300 pages into the book to get to the moral dilemma parts of the characters in Mexico.

Just a sad story to read.

I won't be recommending it to anyone.

[Michael Lauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having finished another of Roberst Crais’ Elvis Cole page-turning novels called, The Wanted, I felt it was time for something a little more weighty, a little more serious. I scanned through my Libby app to see what was available and then I thought of David Adams Richards. Hadn’t read him in a while. I was due. I saw at least four or five of his books available on Libby and, not being able to choose, I decided to go for the first one I saw—Mary Cyr.

A lot of moving parts, that’s what makes a novel interesting, and this one has them in spades. A troubled rich woman from a controversial New Brunswick industrialist family. Family tension between the two familial branches. Two lawyers who detest one another, both of them vying for a plum position, and both of them cruelly using Mary Cyr as leverage. A Canadian cop who has always loved Mary Cyr and who, for decades was her saviour, her guardian-angel and her get-out-jail card. And there's more. Nazi sympathizers, suspicion of murder, a wanton lifestyle that stems from too much money. Yeah, a lot of moving parts, and David Adams Richards keeps them all interacting with each other, preventing even one of them from crashing down.

Yeah, I liked this book.

[Gwen Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know with a name Mary Fatima Cyr there will be sacrifice and sainthood and a zealousness of some sort. David Adams Richards has crafted a complex story of wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness, goodness and evil. It shifts from New Brunswick, home to the powerful and rich Cyr family, to Mexico, where the Cyrs owned a mine, from Mary's tormented youth in New Brunswick, to her imprisonment under the false charges in Oathoa, Mexico. There is an emotional remoteness of the Cyr family whose wealth came from oil, to the corruption of authorities in Mexico, the heroism of some and malace of others. Richards packs it all in. It ends with a sense of redemption - though maybe I, in exhaustion, wished it to be true.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the premise of the story was interesting, a wealthy girl named Mary Cyr sits in a Mexican prison, accused of murdering a child but really she is the victim of the corruption of a cartel.
The books allows the reader to understand that no matter how much money someone has, happiness cannot be bought. Unfortunately wealth isn't all it's cracked up to be, and can often create its own problems.

[Sherry Hinman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book. I didn't give it five stars because I found the first 15% of the book hard to follow -- too many characters and too much story development. Once it got going, though, this book was outstanding. It's difficult to say much more without spoilers, but it was a many-layered, complex book about a fascinating character. At the same time, it was a social commentary and a moral tale that makes no attempt to fit the reader's expectations.

[Caitlin Janke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy through goodreads first-reads.
Sadly I can't really review this book. I was unable to finish it. The story was just to slow and all over the place for me. I also felt the author gave away to much in the beginning and made it hard to stay interested in. I tried really hard to like this book and finish it but I just couldn't. I think the writing style was not for me and others will enjoy it more than I did.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enfin terminé! Ce fut une lecture laborieuse. Ce n’est définitivement pas une grande cuvée d’Adams Richards. J’ai l’impression qu’il a voulu explorer un style plus éclaté que son habituel. Ce n’est pas un succès. On s’égare dans une narration tourmentée, qui transpire trop les frustrations habituelles de l’auteur face à l’intelligentsia intellectuelle dont il souffre. D’habitude j’ai un sourire en coin, mais cette fois-ci c’était lassant. Meilleure chance la prochaine fois.

[Barbara Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read most of David Adams Richards books. This is one of the best! An amazing story teller who winds the characters through timelines of past and present so elegantly. His stories always seem to have that one character with a fatal flaw that just can’t catch a break but every story is so unique and the settings so vivid it doesn’t matter!!

[Lisa H · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always give a book at least 100 pages which takes about 1-2 days, but this book is so slow, so repetitive, it took me a week to read 108 pages. I give up. No idea how Globe and Mail gave this book of the year. TERRIBLE. It’s like the author doesn’t think we remember stuff and repeats who and what over and over. This will only make your quarantine time pass slower. SKIP IT.

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was relatively interesting. It spins a tale of how money can't buy happiness and can cause more problems than it's worth. Anyone who enjoys literary fiction might like this as it is a decent reading experience.


*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely dense. Difficult to follow. Took two tries at it. Couldn't finish it. Too many characters and shifts in scenes. I have enjoyed previous books by this author. But, this one (for me) is not a keeper.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very intrigued by the story line of this book - a Canadian heiress accused of murder in a small Mexican town. But I couldn't get past the strange writing style. Lots of run on sentences and parentheses.

[Shona_reads_in_Devon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A DNF for me. I couldn't get into this. I gave it 81 pages. The writing didn't pull me in. It felt really contrived. I didn't find any of the characters interesting. Potentially a decent plot but I couldn't wade through the painful characterisation of Mary Cyr.

[Kathryn Bagg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plodding.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it - gave up

[Marion Listgarten · Rating 1 out of 5]

read about 40 pgs but don't like writing style. i quit.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this book which I found vague, dissembling & uninspiring. Gave up on P.60

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting character-- not exactly likable, but every little reveal was unexpected. My empathy grew as the difficult circumstances of her life were unveiled.

[Connie Paradowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the other books I have read of his, but found this one disappointing. Did not feel I got to know the characters. Story ended too abruptly with no real detail as to what transpired.