The Mermaid Chair

This is the story of a woman's re-awakening of self. It is the story of forty-two year old Jessie Sullivan, a woman who has sublimated herself throughout her married life to her husband and her daughter. Now that her daughter is going away to college, empty nest syndrome looms on the horizon, along with a somewhat stagnant marriage. When she returns to her childhood home to attend to her aging mother who has done something unthinkable, it is Jessie who then does the unthinkable. On the island where she grew up, Egret Island, her deeply religious mother remains uncommunicative about having intentionally severed one of her fingers. Her mother, a cook for the Benedictine monastery on the Island, will simply not discuss the reasons why she engaged in such a violent act of self-mutilation, and Jessie suspects that it has something to do with the death of Jessie's beloved father who died when she was nine. Jessie had always felt tremendous guilt and sadness regarding her father's death, as he purportedly died while on his fishing boat, which exploded when a spark from a pipe Jessie had given him as a gift had ignited a faulty gas line. While back on Egret Island, Jessie, pondering her mother's situation as well as her own growing discontent and dissatisfaction with her life, runs into Brother Thomas, a Benedictine monk battling his own internal demons and personal crisis. When these two lost souls come together, an illicit affair is begun, and Jessie embarks on such a surprising voyage of personal self-discovery that even she does not know how it will all end. When her husband, Hugh, a psychiatrist and no dummy, comes to the island, he pretty much figures out what is going on. He returns home, only to realize the reality of what actually has happened. He knows that he needs to look beyond himself and try to find a way to overcome his own feelings of personal devastation and betrayal in order to help right what went wrong. While Jessie's way of reaching into the core of her being was not necessarily right, it is the way that presented itself to her. Had it not, I doubt that she would have been able to put her life in order and appreciate what she had with her husband and to build on that. Jessie ultimately realizes that her love affair is the response to a crisis in her life but is not necessarily the solution. This book spoke to me. Its theme resonated on a very personal level. So many women do sublimate themselves to their families that when their children grow up and leave home, they are an empty shell of their former self, their raison d'etre no longer there. They are left to rediscover themselves. Some do, while others, unfortunately do not, sleepwalking through their lives, shadowy remnants of their younger selves, never venturing out beyond their own self-imposed restraints, out of touch with themselves as people in their own right. The author addresses these issues through this lyrically told story. The essence of her haunting prose will s

This is a great book to have for a book club. I certainly wouldn't compare it to the likes of one of the classics, however, if you're looking for some light reading that will foster good discussions, this book fits well.

What a beautiful book! I liked it even more than The Secret of Bees. The way that she describes the water, the island, and the people in this book are sheer poetry. I actually saw what she was describing. It is hard to believe that she made most of the stuff up including the island-Egretts Island. The book begins with Jessie having an ordinary, comfortable, and predictable life. She has a daughter (Dee) that is in college and Jessie has no career. She started out as an artist and for a long time did nothing with her talents. Her husband, Hugh, is a Psychiatrist and treats her like a child in a way. Jessie gets a call that her mother has lopped off one of her fingers with a meat cleaver. Her mother lives on a small island and Jessie lives in Atlanta. She does not care to see her mother who has changed since her father's death. Now Jessie has to return to the life that she left behind and resolve matters with her mother. Both she and her mother changed after her father's death. Jessie always blamed herself just as little children do. Now, Jessie has to confront this ghost too. In the process she meets a man who is a monk about to take his final vows (Brother Thomas also known as Whit). She falls in love with him and he does with her too. The description of their love is passionate and romantic. I was really routing for these two! The way that they loved was really spiritual and intense. Soon Jessie forgot about her husband. However, Jessie was slowly gaining her independence and the ability to rely on herself without anyone else to take care of her. Does Jessie choose her husband or Whit, The Monk in the end? Why did her mother, Nelle, use a meat cleaver on her finger? To find out read the book! The ending is not a huge surprise but it does depict that there are no clear cut, absolute, and perfect relationships. While I cried towards the end, I loved the realism and the description of everything in the book. I found Jessie to be much more of a realistic character and easier to relate to then Lily in The Secret Life of Bees. However, I can see how much research Sue Monk Kidd puts into her novels. I look forward to reading many more of her masterpieces.

Sue Monk Kidd is a marvelous wordsmith. Before writing her two current novels, she was an author of several Christian books: "When The Heart Waits"(1990) and "God's Joyful Surprise" (1987). Her religious books asked the difficult questions concerning life that other Christian fare would normally miss -- hence it is no surprise that her new novel, "The Mermaid Chair" deals with the difficult questions that other novelists avoid. "The Mermaid Chair" examines love from many perspectives: married life and obligations, an erotic and spiritual affair, parental love and the comfort of an old homestead. I love this book because choices need to be made and the choices are not always clear-cut. American popular fiction rarely deals with the inner spiritual life --- this is a novel that integrates the spiritual with the mundane of our lives. After the reader finishes this novel, go out and read her other books. They are just as good.