The Mermaid Chair: A Novel

Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on tiny Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.

Jessie Sullivan’s conventional life has been “molded to the smallest space possible.” So when she is called home to cope with her mother’s startling and enigmatic act of violence, Jessie finds herself relieved to be apart from her husband, Hugh. Jessie loves Hugh, but on Egret Island— amid the gorgeous marshlands and tidal creeks—she becomes drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is mere months from taking his final vows. What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother’s tormented past, but most of all, as Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, she will find a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right.

What inspires the yearning for a soul mate? Few writers have explored, as Kidd does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body; one that illuminates a womanÂ’s self-awakening with the brilliance and power that only a writer of KiddÂ’s ability could conjure.

Amazon.com
Sue Monk Kidd's The Mermaid Chair is the soulful tale of Jessie Sullivan, a middle-aged woman whose stifled dreams and desires take shape during an extended stay on Egret Island, where she is caring for her troubled mother, Nelle. Like Kidd's stunning debut novel, The Secret Life of Bees, her highly anticipated follow up evokes the same magical sense of whimsy and poignancy.

While Kidd places an obvious importance on the role of mysticism and legend in this tale, including the mysterious mermaid's chair at the center of the island's history, the relationships between characters is what gives this novel its true weight. Once she returns to her childhood home, Jessie is forced to confront not only her relationship with her estranged mother, but her other emotional ties as well. After decades of marriage to Hugh, her practical yet conventional husband, Jessie starts to question whether she is craving an independence she never had the chance to experience. After she meets Brother Thomas, a handsome monk who has yet to take his final vows, Jessie is forced to decide whether passion can coexist with comfort, or if the two are mutually exclusive. As her soul begins to reawaken, Jessie must also confront the circumstances of her father's death, a tragedy that continues to haunt Jessie and Nelle over thirty years later.

By boldly tackling such major themes as love, betrayal, grief, and forgiveness, The Mermaid Chair forces readers to question whether moral issues can always be interpreted in black or white. It is this ability to so gracefully present multiple sides of a story that reinforces Kidd's reputation as a well-respected modern literary voice. --Gisele Toueg

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Great read that makes you think , 2008-08-24
This is a great book. 5 stars. It makes you look inside yourself and think about your life's goals, destiny, the destination where your life's flow is taking you, are you on a right track, are you in charge of your own life, what makes you happy and unhappy, mother-daughter relationship, etc.

The ending is a positive one, it gives hope, but at the same time it's not a typical Hollywood-style "happy end".


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Mindless entertainment, 2008-08-15
This book is the most generic of Beach Books. Light and fluffy, with some Made For TV Movie drama thrown in (should she leave her husband? Why is her mother crazy?), it's engaging enough to be able to finish but I found it impossible to really like. The characters are standard (Crazy Mom, Sexy Other Guy, Hip Collegiate Daughter and the protagonist, while obviously supposed to be sympathetic and "deep," comes off as too beige, self-important and indecisive to respect.

If this book is lying around and you need to kill a few hours, go for it. But don't look for anything of intellectual value or moral character.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The Mermaid Chair: The Seat of Questions of Ethics, 2008-08-15
The story begins with Jesse Sullivan returning home to Egret Island to care for her aging mother who had just purposefully cut off her finger. Discovering that her mother had done this as part of a mysterious ritual, Jesse ultimately discovers secrets about her family's past, as well as about what she wants from her own life. The Island, described in detail as if it were a main character itself, is crucial and effective to the presentation of characters and ideas. The Mermaid Chair, also central to the plot of this story, as well as to the small town, is discovered to have been vital in Jesse's own family's history. The "Thorn Birds"- style subplot adds an enjoyable romance to the story. Ms Kidd combines mysticism and legend to give this story an eerie tone. This is a wonderful story which questions the importance of ethics when they conflict with saving others.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Could someone please tell me what the point of the book was?, 2008-08-12
This was the most pointless book I've ever read in my entire life.

A woman who probably has met dozens of handsome men before, suddenly 'falls in love' within the space of about two seconds, just because she feels bored.

She had a perfect life, and a understanding, handsome husband who is rich, and provides well for her, a wonderful, smart, beautiful daughter who just got into college, and yet she's the most selfish, self-centered person in the world.

When she gets 'caught up' in an affair, she cares nothing for anyone but herself, and doesn't even consider the concequences. She doesn't worry that she's going to tear her husband's heart in two, cause her daughter to lose her respect and liking for her mother, and consider the fact that she's committing a sin.

The monk, who is sex-crazed, does something completely out of place for a 'man of God' and had a love affair with a MARRIED WOMAN.

Sue Monk Kidd is a good writer, but this was nothing but a fluff novel with no point to it at all.

The mother of Jessie is insane, and feels guilt suddenly at once for something she hasn't regretted FOR THIRTY YEARS. Other characters weren't really fleshed out, and I would have been more interested in the book if they had been.

Benne didn't make any sense, and was a weird woman who was thought to be a child prodigy, but in reality, was mentally challenged.

Trust me, you will not enjoy this novel.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Don't bother, 2008-08-04
I never read The Secret Life of Bees, but I did hear that it is an amazing book. After hearing and reading all of the reviews, I assumed that The Mermaid Chair, written by the same author, would be equally as good. Well, we all know what happens when you assume.

The book is boring. I find myself reading it just to get it over with because I hate starting books and not finishing them. But I may make an exception for this one. The characters are dull, the plot is predictable and unmoving. Luckily I bought it on the bargain rack, and I can see why it was there. Don't bother.

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