63 pages • 2 hours read
David Adams RichardsMercy Among the Children
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 3, Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Love”
Part 3, Chapters 1-6 Summary
Mat and Cynthia await the settlement of their court case. Frederick Snook brings them an offer of $2,000, less than what they spent on the litigation. Two days later, the Pits decide to take the money, but Snook withdraws the offer. Snook confides in Cynthia that, due to the new findings of officer John Delano’s case, Mat Pit could face a murder charge.
Driving home from Snook’s office, the Pits blame Connie Devlin and try to think of a way to save themselves. The tone of the local newspaper has swung in Sydney’s favor. Mat takes a shotgun to Connie Devlin’s house but finds it empty.
Rudy visits Cynthia and tells her he has no more money for her. He has been washing windows in town and looking for work. Cynthia blackmails him with the threat of prison. Rudy tells Cynthia that Leo McVicer wants to see her. Leo knows that Rudy, Mat, and Connie are all done for, and wishes to save Cynthia. They agree that Cynthia will come to the house to help Gladys. Rudy plans to pitch his idea for a marina to Leo, who has known about it and been building one for three years.
At mass, Leo’s thoughts turn to his personal business. Leo has figured out exactly what happened regarding the assault, the robbery, and the bridge and plans to oust Rudy from their lives. Father Porier tells Leo that Elly is sick, and Leo confesses that he knows about Mat Pit’s crimes. Father Porier remembers sexually assaulting Connie Devlin and Sydney Henderson when they were children.
Vicka, a “miracle child” from Yugoslavia, is visiting the church. She has seen visions of the Virgin Mary.
Part 3, Chapters 1-6 Analysis
There is a distinct absence of love in the first few chapters of “Love.” Cynthia is ready to drop Rudy, whom she had claimed to love, the moment that he no longer has anything to offer her. Mat, already a murderer, intends to kill his former accomplice. The ill-fated liaison between Cynthia and McVicer begins. Belying Richards’s characteristic dark sense of humor, Black Sabbath plays on the radio in the Pits’ car as they continue to plot and scheme, in yet another biblical parallel.
In Chapters 4 through 6 Richards reveals once again what an omniscient, godlike perspective McVicer enjoys. A shrewd businessman, he has known about Rudy’s involvement in the crimes and already implemented his marina pitch. Porier, ostensibly the man of God, has been informing on the community to McVicer. He also stereotypically abuses his power in sexually assaulting Sydney and Connie as children. Absurdly, Vicka from Yugoslavia, who claims to have had visions of the Virgin Mary, enters the novel. It is unclear whether her visions are legitimate.
