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The Mermaid That Came Between Them [Hardcover]

Carol Ann Sima (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Price: $22.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

April 1, 2002

As a young boy visiting the seaside, Jacob met his first love: a mermaid named Claritha. Three decades later, he’s a divorced father of a college-age son and a writer of maritime adventure stories, Jacob renews his fantastical relationship with Claritha only to discover that his son too has fallen in love with the same bedazzling creature from the sea.

Despite her supernatural sexuality, Claritha, like any ordinary landlocked female, is experiencing menopause, and is pursuing a man to fertilize her one remaining egg. In response to this womanly rite of passage, and to help make sense of his intergeneration love triangle, Jacob pens a self-help book about men and menopause and unwittingly becomes a sought-after media sensation, though women’s groups question his credibility.

Like the fantastic fabulism mastered by Alice Hoffman and Tom Robbins, Carol Ann Sima’s forcefully imaginative and ebullient novel walks readers through a sprightly urban fairy tale where anything—even a mermaid ménage a trios—can happen. With witty word games and playful twists, The Mermaid That Came Between Them turns "what if" into a sigh of "if only."

Marketing Plans:
International author tour includes: East Coast, West Coast, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver and London, UK
National print advertising
Co-op available
Posters and postcards

A native New Yorker, Carol Ann Sima wrote the entirety of The Mermaid That Came Between Them longhand at coffee shops throughout New York City. Sima works as an elementary school language arts educator for the New York school system. Her first novel, Jane’s Bad Hare Day, was published by Dalkey Archive in 1995.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the arresting prologue of this winsome contemporary fairy tale, five-year-old Jacob Koleman is enticed into the sea off South Hampton by three bare-chested little girls, who turn out to have tail fins instead of legs. (When he stares at their "titties," his "pee-pee" hardens.) Jacob escapes their caresses, but he has just met his first love, the mermaid Claritha, who resurfaces in his life 45 years later when he's a divorced dad and an established New York author of pirate stories. The menopausal, generously stacked Claritha, eager for offspring, sets her sights on Jacob, whose current book project is a departure from his usual, Men in Menopause. Jacob's feminist ex-wife, Cheryl, discovers oral sex instead of fulfilling his dream of her entering a convent, while their son, Mac, poses for older photographer Maya Evans's gallery exhibition, Dickheads. Claritha produces an egg, which Jacob fertilizes and Mac carries. The resulting infant is a full-blown replica of the goddess whose photos decorate everyone's walls, Marilyn Monroe. Sima (Jane's Bad Hare Day) walks a fine line between the whimsical and the overly cute, but the high quality of her prose sustains interest throughout. Notable are some striking similes and metaphors ("Her hair was a curly red blaze that wouldn't go out"; "We pep-talked him through the choppy waters of high school") and scenes sure to evoke wry laughter (when Jacob is caught speaking to the sea, he's hauled off to Bellevue for observation). With all the hobbit fever, this fantasy for grown-ups makes a refreshing change.

Review

"A good old-fashioned joyful read...just the sort of book for intelligent beach readers." -- Ruminator Review, Summer 2002

"A peculiar but delightful meditation in fantastical terms about the innate weirdness of...relationships in this postmodern era." -- Locus, June 2002

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Coffee House Press (April 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1566891248
  • ISBN-13: 978-1566891240
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,752,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Sunk, February 17, 2006
This review is from: The Mermaid That Came Between Them (Hardcover)
Let me put it simply: this book is so dreadful that every copy needs consigned to the bottom of the sea where only real mermaids might be able to read it. There's nothing to recommend this book from the laughably awkward dialogue to the nonsensical narration, to the choppy sentences, to the complete misuse of dialogue tags. This is an amateur effort that makes no sense, has no interesting or compelling characters, and is completely disgusting.

I always hate to rail about filth in books because it makes me feel like an old prude (I'm not old at least), but talk of a five-year-old's "pee-pee" as mermaids sexually abuse the young Jacob Koleman and later the father-son-mermaid incestual threesome warrant the tag of disgusting filth.

As mentioned before, the dialogue is laughably awkward. None of these characters ever utters a line that sounds even remotely like something that would come from a human being. Nor are these terrible lines arranged in any way that could be misconstrued as a conversation. Basically everyone spouts random nonsense.

I might be able to describe the plot for you if any of it made any sense. From what I gather, Jacob is abused by mermaids early on and has a lifelong fixation. Eventually after his divorce he ends up meeting a mermaid who is trying to reproduce. There's a lot of talk about menopause, Marilyn Monroe, and Disney that doesn't add up to anything.

The writing doesn't help make the plot any clearer; if anything the writing makes the plot LESS understandable. The author uses lots of choppy sentences mixed with odd metaphors and cliches that gives the whole thing an ADHD feeling. Maybe there's an interesting story in here, but I haven't found it.

The characters are all so bizarre (and speak so poorly) that none comes close to seeming like a real human being. At least the mermaid has an excuse. Some like the agent's secretary and the crisis counselor are so bizarre they seem more like aliens from another world than real people.

Anyone who likes the book might try to call it whimsical or fun, but it's just bad. Not even bad in a campy B-movie way, just BAD as in terrible, horrible, dreadful. This makes my Top 5 for worst books I've ever read. Highly recommended you stay away from this garbage, considering there are so many more worthwhile entertainments out there. Find one and don't look back.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An eclectic seascape fantasy, April 3, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Mermaid That Came Between Them (Hardcover)
A modern day fable- the mermaid is the secret link between childhood & adulthood and a father & son. Inventive, witty, an instant classic!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The keys were a hurdle. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
egg snatcher, conflict counselor, book doctor
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
First Love, Jacob Koleman, Marilyn Monroe, Sea Witch, Harry Potter, Naughty Boy, Pirate Cassidy, Feeble Ones, Grandpa Marshall, Daughters of the Sea, Yondle Carr, New York City, The Times, World's Greatest Dad
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