TAKE ME TO MERCY; How The Carrie Nation Changed My Life takes place in the early 1970's. It is the story of a young woman named Jo, as she moves from her 20's into her 30's, and the women's movement that shelters her along the way. It is also a story about a rural community of great natural beauty and of a man who helps Jo find a home. It is the story of the women's movement as it worked on the ground in an ordinary community, moved by ordinary women, during an extraordinary time. It will move you. It will make you laugh out loud. It will make you cry. And maybe it'll inspire you.
ORDER IT FROM AMAZON -- Download it to your Kindle.
ORDER IT FROM AMAZON -- Download it to your Kindle.
REVIEWS! HOW GRATEFUL I AM FOR MY READERS... AND HOW THEY TEACH ME!
"Take Me to Mercy" by Olsen is remarkable. Reading the novel brought me back to my world of the 70's, a world I had almost forgotten. Sexual harassment in the workplace--no law against it. Men, more fun to be with, more intelligent--why did I think that? And finally, friends--groups of women--to talk about all this with, honestly, for the first time--and discovering the depths of our own value--the creativity, resilience, courage and brilliance of women, and experiencing the anger, and the love and the new freedom.This is what the book is about, with its unique colorful flavor. It was hard to put down--an excellent read. -- J. Boggia
-------------------------------------------
First of all, can we get past the idea that this book is for women only? – a notion that would be the equivalent of saying the struggles of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Nelson Mandela are stories fit only for people of African descent. Irrespective of one’s sex, dreams are dreams and courage is courage. There are insights and entertainments to be taken from examining each patch of the human quilt; and this particular patch is one I had put off examining for way too long.
“Take Me to Mercy,” a new indie novel by Kathie Olsen, is a portrait of a twenty-something big-city girl with a long-time love affair and a job or two already behind her. When she leaves San Francisco for a fictional Northern California small town, she’s perhaps a bit naïve, but she’s also bright and basically good. The 1960s, which have just ended, have seeded her with a healthy dose of optimism and a sense of justice (by which I mean a BS-detector that recognizes injustice by its smell). The story – a love story, believe it or not – takes our heroine through the adventures of self-discovery that confront every human being who chooses to delve into the soul and mature into wisdom.
The book is based upon a curious irony, an irony which existed (and still exists among many social groups) that the antagonists and impediments to her personal struggle were the same educated, idealistic men who should have been her allies: men who considered her a friend, meanwhile undermining her because they didn’t comprehend how the role of women in American life had shifted forever.
My own home in those days was small-town Oregon, not California, but the couple of hundred miles are irrelevant. The book was, for me, a time machine that yanked me back into the dreams, the music, the intellectual pursuits, the joys, the sorrows, the landscapes and the inevitable growing-up of those days. No HIV, no global warming, no jihadists – yet no generation escapes the fact that all times are challenging times. Kathie Olsen has written accurately and entertainingly about the changing paradigms that followed the 1960s. -- Gonian Male
-----------------------------------------
I loved this one. I don't think I've ever read a story about women's "consciousness raising" groups, and this one is funny (love the story about 'you wanna arm wrestle??'), thoughtful, touching and insightful. The book takes place in a small loggers and cowboys town in northern California which is oh so familiar to me. Olsen got it just right. It's a treat to read - and it stays with you with lots to think about. -- J. Edwards
-----------------------------------------
This novel is a good read. It's an engaging story of a young woman (Jo) who directly experiences, and is changed by, the arrival of the women's movement in 1970's rural America. Jo is a brave, intelligent woman. As she tells her story, the reader is cheering for her as though for a good friend. Jo grew up a city girl. Rather than go to college, she threw herself into the civil rights movement of the 1960's. As the book opens in the early 1970's, she decides to leave a faithless lover and follow her dream of living in the country--a brave adventure, since she hasn't the slightest understanding of what she's getting herself into. In a small town in Northern California--with a small group of friends--she buys a mountainside farm and accepts a low-status job in a community development agency. Through Jo's eyes, up close and personal, the reader experiences the struggles of the war on poverty, the reality of poorly-paid female clerical workers bearing more than their share of the work, and, most importantly, the power of the women's movement as it reaches ordinary women.
I'd recommend this book to all teenage and adult women (and the men who love them). Never heavy-handed, this story brings to life the struggles of the 1960's and 1970's that gave women the opportunities they have today. A final note: I'd recommend this novel for inclusion in college courses such as Social Movements, Women's History, Women and Work, Gender Studies, and Sociology of Women.
Diane M Schaffer, PhD
Professor Emerita, San Jose State University
Former Coordinator of Women's Studies Program
------------------------------------------
"Take Me to Mercy" by Olsen is remarkable. Reading the novel brought me back to my world of the 70's, a world I had almost forgotten. Sexual harassment in the workplace--no law against it. Men, more fun to be with, more intelligent--why did I think that? And finally, friends--groups of women--to talk about all this with, honestly, for the first time--and discovering the depths of our own value--the creativity, resilience, courage and brilliance of women, and experiencing the anger, and the love and the new freedom.This is what the book is about, with its unique colorful flavor. It was hard to put down--an excellent read. -- J. Boggia
-------------------------------------------
First of all, can we get past the idea that this book is for women only? – a notion that would be the equivalent of saying the struggles of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Nelson Mandela are stories fit only for people of African descent. Irrespective of one’s sex, dreams are dreams and courage is courage. There are insights and entertainments to be taken from examining each patch of the human quilt; and this particular patch is one I had put off examining for way too long.
“Take Me to Mercy,” a new indie novel by Kathie Olsen, is a portrait of a twenty-something big-city girl with a long-time love affair and a job or two already behind her. When she leaves San Francisco for a fictional Northern California small town, she’s perhaps a bit naïve, but she’s also bright and basically good. The 1960s, which have just ended, have seeded her with a healthy dose of optimism and a sense of justice (by which I mean a BS-detector that recognizes injustice by its smell). The story – a love story, believe it or not – takes our heroine through the adventures of self-discovery that confront every human being who chooses to delve into the soul and mature into wisdom.
The book is based upon a curious irony, an irony which existed (and still exists among many social groups) that the antagonists and impediments to her personal struggle were the same educated, idealistic men who should have been her allies: men who considered her a friend, meanwhile undermining her because they didn’t comprehend how the role of women in American life had shifted forever.
My own home in those days was small-town Oregon, not California, but the couple of hundred miles are irrelevant. The book was, for me, a time machine that yanked me back into the dreams, the music, the intellectual pursuits, the joys, the sorrows, the landscapes and the inevitable growing-up of those days. No HIV, no global warming, no jihadists – yet no generation escapes the fact that all times are challenging times. Kathie Olsen has written accurately and entertainingly about the changing paradigms that followed the 1960s. -- Gonian Male
-----------------------------------------
I loved this one. I don't think I've ever read a story about women's "consciousness raising" groups, and this one is funny (love the story about 'you wanna arm wrestle??'), thoughtful, touching and insightful. The book takes place in a small loggers and cowboys town in northern California which is oh so familiar to me. Olsen got it just right. It's a treat to read - and it stays with you with lots to think about. -- J. Edwards
-----------------------------------------
This novel is a good read. It's an engaging story of a young woman (Jo) who directly experiences, and is changed by, the arrival of the women's movement in 1970's rural America. Jo is a brave, intelligent woman. As she tells her story, the reader is cheering for her as though for a good friend. Jo grew up a city girl. Rather than go to college, she threw herself into the civil rights movement of the 1960's. As the book opens in the early 1970's, she decides to leave a faithless lover and follow her dream of living in the country--a brave adventure, since she hasn't the slightest understanding of what she's getting herself into. In a small town in Northern California--with a small group of friends--she buys a mountainside farm and accepts a low-status job in a community development agency. Through Jo's eyes, up close and personal, the reader experiences the struggles of the war on poverty, the reality of poorly-paid female clerical workers bearing more than their share of the work, and, most importantly, the power of the women's movement as it reaches ordinary women.
I'd recommend this book to all teenage and adult women (and the men who love them). Never heavy-handed, this story brings to life the struggles of the 1960's and 1970's that gave women the opportunities they have today. A final note: I'd recommend this novel for inclusion in college courses such as Social Movements, Women's History, Women and Work, Gender Studies, and Sociology of Women.
Diane M Schaffer, PhD
Professor Emerita, San Jose State University
Former Coordinator of Women's Studies Program
------------------------------------------
