Lisa Cupolo has lived a lot of lives. She’s lived in many places all over the world and worked as everything from a paparazzi photographer to a script doctor.
And in her stories her characters make homes in far-flung places in myriad occupations.
There are many common threads running through these stories that show that no matter where we are or who we are, we all suffer similarly. We want the same things. We love in ways that are wholly singular but that are nothing if not a beautiful commonality shared the world over.
There is a lot about love in these stories. But love isn’t just a romantic element here, nor is it simply sentimental or a means to an end—just a way to find a mate or a spouse. Never just that.
Love here takes many forms. And it’s such a complicated thing that the idea of “mercy” —from the book’s title, from an eponymous story in the collection and from a Chekhov story the author admires— is really another word for love.
If we consider all the meanings and types of love there are, just think about all the permutations of mercy.
The flaws and follies of Cupolo’s characters teach us something, too, about what it means to be human when we make mistakes or when we allow each other mercy.
Guest:
Lisa Cupolo is the author of Have Mercy on Us— a winner of the W.S. Porter Prize for short story collections.
