- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Headline Review (28 Mar 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755307623
- ISBN-13: 978-0755307623
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 852,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Mermaid Chair
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Product Description
Review
'Monk Kidd spins a highly charged tale full of sexual and spiritual desire. Every bit as convincing and moving as her previous, bestselling novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES' (Mirror )
'The powerful follow-up to the international bestseller, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES' (Grazia )
'Impulse, excitement and the anticipation swell within Kidd's prose which is magical, imaginative and effortless' (The Big Issue (North) )
'So evocative is this novel, you can taste the salt air and feel the sand between your toes' (Nottingham Evening Post )
'Kidd has a flair for making us see her characters with great vividness and immediacy' (New York Times Book Review )
'A fascinating look at how the deepest ties can be tested when you meet the right person at the wrong time' (Glamour )
'Sue Monk Kidd... knows how to grab the attention of her readership... The novel also has humour and a profound feeling for its primeval landscape of mud flats and salt creeks... The sensitively plotted emotional journey makes this another inevitable bestseller' (Time Out )
'The author mixes a cocktail of myth, spiritual concerns and sexual yearning, and her descriptions of the island landscape are lush and detailed...' (The Sunday Times )
'Passionate and powerful, the book will have you hooked' (Peterborough Evening Telegraph )
'The powerful follow-up to the international bestseller, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES' (Grazia )
'Impulse, excitement and the anticipation swell within Kidd's prose which is magical, imaginative and effortless' (The Big Issue (North) )
'So evocative is this novel, you can taste the salt air and feel the sand between your toes' (Nottingham Evening Post )
'Kidd has a flair for making us see her characters with great vividness and immediacy' (New York Times Book Review )
'A fascinating look at how the deepest ties can be tested when you meet the right person at the wrong time' (Glamour )
'Sue Monk Kidd... knows how to grab the attention of her readership... The novel also has humour and a profound feeling for its primeval landscape of mud flats and salt creeks... The sensitively plotted emotional journey makes this another inevitable bestseller' (Time Out )
'The author mixes a cocktail of myth, spiritual concerns and sexual yearning, and her descriptions of the island landscape are lush and detailed...' (The Sunday Times )
'Passionate and powerful, the book will have you hooked' (Peterborough Evening Telegraph )
The Big Issue (North)
'Impulse, excitement and the anticipation swell within Kidd's prose which is magical, imaginative and effortless'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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 stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
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 stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In my opinion "The Mermaid Chair" is about the unknown. The title comes from (in the story) an ornately carved chair (carved with mermaid designs) that is dedicated to a church saint was actually a mermaid before a conversion (at least according to legend). The crux of the story is about the search for the unknown that drives us in life. There is an unknown that has tormented Jessie Sullivan's mother to act out in violence and bring Jessie back to her childhood home to care for her. There is the unknown of why happily married Jessie is mysteriously drawn to a monk on the verge of taking his vows. There is the unknown of what makes one yearn for a soul mate. The second novel from Sue Monk Kidd following her stunning debut "The Secret Life of Bees", "The Mermaid Chair" is an exquisite example of storytelling in its finest form along the lines of "Life of Pi", "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", "My Fractured Life", and "Kite Runner."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful novel, spellbinding with characters that you can wholly visualise and want to know. The writing is very strong and not for a long time have I remembered the style, flavour and feeling of a novelist's writing long after I have finished it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable read
A romance with a hint of mystery. The mystery is introduced early in the narrative and holds the suspense to end, with little glimpses throughout. Read more
Published 4 months ago by lesleymc
A lyrical cameo of a mid-life woman
The story is about marriage,loss of independence,the empty nest and a difficult mother /daughter relationship. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lorna Bevan
Good read.
A good read. I read it in one evening. Jessie has it all ~ a kind, successful and sexy husband. A daughter whom she can be proud of. Read more
Published 9 months ago by lankylil
A good read
Enjoyable, not as good as 'Secret life of Bees' but a strong female character, looking for happiness. Confused by a forbidden love and sadness of losing an old love. Read more
Published 17 months ago
A good read
I bought this book after enjoying The Secret life of Bees, also by Kidd. I don't think it was quite as good as The Secret Life of Bees but it was still enjoyable and well written.
Published on 17 Feb 2010 by Abs
An emotional read
I found myself getting quite emotional reading The Mermaid's Chair. Perhaps because I've been married for a long time and my children are growing up and I could feel Jessie's angst... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2009 by Mrs. S. R. Wray
Very disappointing
Having read and loved " The Secret Life of Bees" I was looking forward to reading this book and chose it as my bookclub selection. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2008 by Ainm eile
Powerful!
Although I enjoyed this as much as The Secret Life of Bees, I did find it rather fairytale like rather than realistic. Maybe I was meant to? Read more
Published on 12 May 2007 by LindyLouMac
Fairy story
Beautiful, much like Secret Life of Bees, but slips up massively near the end. If we are supposed to feel like Jessie is real and therefore empathise, why does the novel end so... Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2007 by R. Barlow
forgive, forget, move on...
... seems to be the `moral' of the story here, which, although lovingly written lacks some of the warmth and depth of characters that I so enjoyed in "The Secret Life of... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2006 by maria1971
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