Summary of Small Mercies a Novel by Dennis Lehane

By GP SUMMARY

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

 

Summary of Small Mercies a Novel by Dennis Lehane

 

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Small Mercies is an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston's history. Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors when her teenage daughter Jules stays out late and a young Black man is found dead. Mary Pat searches for her missing daughter and questions Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: May 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9783755441137

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Summary of

Small Mercies

A

Summary of Dennis Lehane’s Novel

GP SUMMARY

Summary of Small Mercies a Novel by Dennis Lehane

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

All rights reserved.

Author: GP SUMMARY

Contact: [e-mail]

Cover, illustration: GP SUMMARY

Editing, proofreading: GP SUMMARY

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NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Dennis Lehane’s Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

Historical Note

Judge Garrity ruled in Morgan v. Hennigan that the Boston School Committee had systematically disadvantaged black school children in the public school system and ordered busing students between predominantly white and predominantly black neighborhoods to desegregate the city's public high schools.

1

Mary Pat wakes up to sweltering temperatures in her Fennessy apartment. She lights her first cigarette and stares out the window. To get the family out of arrears, she has picked up two shifts at the shoe warehouse and a trip to the billing office. She carries the trash can into the living room and sweeps the beer cans into it. She sees a creature she can't reconcile with in her mind, but she isn't aging.

She is peering at her face in the TV when the doorbell rings. Brian Shea is a Butler crew member who works for Marty Butler. He wears a white T-shirt under a navy blue Baracuta, blond hair cropped tight in a crew cut, and off-white chinos and scuffed black ankle boots with zippers on the sides. He has eyes the color of Windex and asks Mary Pat if she can help him with the signs for the rally, which is happening Friday at City Hall Plaza. Mary Pat places the slats in the umbrella bucket just inside her door.

Brian and Mary Pat are attending a protest to end judiciary dictatorship on Friday, August 30, at City Hall Plaza. They are asked to pass out leaflets asking people to cover specific blocks, such as Mercer between Eighth and Dorchester Street, Telegraph to the park, and all the houses ringing the park. Brian offers protection to the IRA, starving children in Wherever the Fuck, and families of veterans. Mary Pat asks Brian if he can shoot the judge, but he replies that he'll do it for her. Mary Pat's daughter, Jules, is aging at seventeen due to a variety of factors, including growing up in Commonwealth, losing a brother, being forced to enter a new school, and getting into trouble with her friends.

Jules is addicted to booze, cigarettes, and the Scourge, which can turn healthy kids into corpses in under a year. If Jules keeps it to these substances, she will only lose her looks and everyone in the projects will lose their looks. Mary Pat's mother, Louise Weezie Flanagan, a Hall of Fame Irish Tough Broad, told her that Mary Pat was either a fighter or a runner. Jules, Mary Pat's daughter, is tall and sinewy, with long smooth hair the color of an apple. She is fragile in the eyes, flesh, and soul.

Mary Pat wishes she had found a way to get them out of Commonwealth before Jules finds out which she is. Mary Pat and Jules are going to City Hall to rally against the Scourge. Mary Pat's voice is a wet whisper when she says, You bet, sweetie. Mary Pat and Noel are living in South Boston, where black and white kids are about to be bused into Southie and out to Roxbury. Mary Pat has worked alongside many blacks and knows that they want the same things she does, such as a steady paycheck, food on the table, and children safe in their beds. Noel has seen a lot of coloreds walking up West Broadway, but she misses his smile.

Noel kisses her on the top of her head and tells her she's too nice for these projects. Project kids in Southie hate staying in the way rich people hate work. Mary Pat and Jules are taking Mary Pat to back-to-school shopping, but Mary Pat doesn't have a stove. Jules encourages Mary Pat to get a job before she breaks her head in, but Mary Pat refuses. Jules helps Mary Pat knock on doors and they start in the Heights.

Mary Pat and Jules visit a park and monument, where many people aren't home. Mary Pat takes Jules to Robell's and buys her a notebook, four-pack of pens, a blue nylon school bag, and jeans. On the walk home, Jules asks her mother why she doesn't feel the way other people seem to feel. Her mother tries to explain that she doesn't understand why she doesn't feel the way other people seem to feel. Mary Pat's daughter, Jules, is tired of lying to her mother, Mary Pat, and wants to know why they are doing this.

Mary Pat kneads her daughter's palms with her thumbs, and Jules gives her a smile that's sad and knowing. Mary Pat asks Jules if she is PMSing, and Jules hucks out a liquid chuckle. Mary Pat kneads her daughter's palms with her thumbs, and Jules gives her a smile that's sad and knowing. Mary Pat kneads her daughter's palms with her thumbs, and Jules gives her a smile that's sad and knowing. Mary Pat kneads