Mercury Under My Tongue
by Sylvain Trudel

    MERCURY UNDER MY TONGUE by Sylvain Trudel
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  1/28/08
    Publisher:  Soft Skull Press
    Reviewed by:  Jaglvr
    Rating:  5 Stars


    MERCURY UNDER MY TONGUE is not a book for the weak of heart.  It is a powerful story told through they
    eyes of a seventeen-year-old boy dying of bone cancer.  Frederick Langlois is in a Canadian hospital.  He knows
    he is dying and is doing what he can to survive.

    Frederick's family comes to visit, but he has little to say.  Instead, he has thoughts inside his head of what he would
    prefer to say to them.  He has gone so far as to write letters to each member of his family.  His plan is to have one
    of the survivors on his floor mail them off on the one-year anniversary of his death.

    His only solace is the poetry that he writes, but shares with no one except a fifteen-year-old leukemia patient,
    Marilou.  The poetry shows another glimpse into Frederick's thoughts as he faces his final days.

    Mr. Trudel writes a sad, moving story of a boy wanting more out of life than the hand he was dealt.  Frederick
    shows anger, regret, love, joy, and, against his better judgment, acceptance, as his time draws nearer to the end.  
    He rarely shares his pain of cancer with the reader, but there are snippets of the discomfort that he struggles with
    on a daily basis.  

    The story is translated from its original French but still flows beautifully and eloquently.  If nothing else, Mr. Trudel's
    work will make you glad you are alive, and want to live the most in each day.