The Mermaid Chair: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "February 17, 1988, I opened my eyes and heard a procession of sounds: first the phone going off on the opposite side of the bed,..." (more)
Key Phrases: mermaid chair, whirly girl, turtle skull, Father Dominic, Brother Thomas, Dom Anthony (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Jessie Sullivan, the protagonist of this rewarding second novel by the author of the bestselling Secret Life of Bees, is awakened by a shrilling phone late one night to horrifying news: her mother, who has never recovered from her husband Joe's death 33 years earlier, has chopped off her own finger with a cleaver. Frantic with worry, and apprehensive at the thought of returning to the small island where she grew up in the shadow of her beloved father's death and her mother's fanatical Catholicism, 42-year-old Jessie gets on the next plane, leaving behind her psychiatrist husband, Hugh, and college-age daughter, Dee. On tiny Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina, Jessie tries to care for her mother, Nelle, who is not particularly eager to be taken care of. Jessie gets help from Nelle's best friends, feisty shopkeeper Kat and Hepzibah, a dignified chronicler of slave history. To complicate matters, Jessie finds herself strangely relieved to be free of a husband she loves—and wildly attracted to Brother Thomas, né Whit O'Conner, a junior monk at the island's secluded Benedictine monastery. Confusing as the present may be, the past is rearing its head, and Jessie, who has never understood why her mother is still distraught by Joe's death, begins to suspect that she's keeping a terrible secret. Writing from the perspective of conflicted, discontented Jessie, Kidd achieves a bold intensity and complexity that wasn't possible in The Secret Life of Bees, narrated by teenage Lily. Jessie's efforts to cope with marital stagnation; Whit's crisis of faith; and Nelle's tormented reckoning with the past will resonate with many readers. This emotionally rich novel, full of sultry, magical descriptions of life in the South, is sure to be another hit for Kidd.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 335 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670033944
• ISBN-13: 978-0670033942
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (590 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,294 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An irritating, grating book that I wish I had not read., August 27, 2005

By	Alexiel (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon.com's editorial review is so far off base it's stunning. It says "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." I say, what book doesn't "tackle" this issues? They're so universal, few books don't "tackle" them? To say nothing of boldness.

The only thing this book does boldly is advance a quasi-Ayn Rand like "philosophy" that essentially consists of the mantra "Selfishness is good." Well, let me rephrase that. This book toutes subordination to one's every whim and desire and unrepentant selfishness with no thought to external consequences and wraps it up shabbily as the politics of reawakening and philosophy.

If I could communicate one statement to the author, whose "Secret Life Of Bees" was an infinitely more charming book that did not groan under the weight of its preternaturally overburdened excesses and trite ambitions, it would be this: There are probably few protagonists less involving, sympathetic, and interesting than whiny, self-aggrandizing, navel-gazing narcissists.

Reading this review, you might think I don't like books like these. That's not true. Introspection and questioning the fundamentals of one's life as a means to genuine, meaningful, and edifying self-realization and self-actualization can often be a fascinating read. But not this. This is a book about an utterly vapid woman whose obsession with herself and her own thoughts and feelings leads her to some rather shallow and unconvincing experimentations done far better in much older books. You've met people like this. Nothing fascinates them more than themselves, and they're endlessly questioning the meaning of their thoughts, feelings, etc. like they are the center of the universe. That's not interesting.

Of course the author throws in the by-now-stereotypical "grave misfortune involving parents from childhood that was never dealt with that must be dealt with now" for good measure. Ugh. There's no growth, there's no learning going on here. If nothing else I've said about this book stays with you, then let this pronouncement - this book is an exercise in what happens people when they become too inwardly fixated to the point of narcissistic obsession. There's no growth, there's no learning.

To contrast, a number of years ago I read Graham Joyce's "Dark Sister" about a bored housewife who, after years of dutiful service to his husband, came, through magic of sorts, around to a legitimate exploration of what her life could be, especially in regards to her independence from her odious husband. It did so in a charming style that wasn't condescending or overly cloying, unlike this novel, and while it made the housewife's concerns paramount and somewhat inwardly focused, it did so without all of the annoying, whiny "Me! Me! Me!" prattling that passes as self-discovery in this book.

In short, I wouldn't recommend this book at all, unless you think self-discovery through unremittant self-indulgence and melodramatic emotional posturing sounds like a good time.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic Nonsense, August 29, 2005

By	Kathleen Spring "Profilewriter" (Trenton, New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a disappointment! "The Secret Life of Bees," Monk's previous book, was original. It featured a believable heroine and an interesting cast of supporting characters, even if its ending was contrived. Reviewers wrote that this book was even better, so....I had high hopes.

The book is the trite, oh-so-often-told story of a middle age woman who is discontent despite having unlimited money, a wonderful child, and a wildly handsome, incredibly wonderful, professionally successful husband.

She runs to the aid of the mother she has not visited in seven years -- in large part because mom hated the last birthday present she gave her -- and, huge surprise!, falls in love with the first man who crosses her path. The attraction is all the stronger, and the sex amazing, surprise again!, because he is unavailable.

There are two predictably eccentric minor characters, and the mother is so thinly drawn that it is difficult to summon a mental picture of her.

There is practically zero suspense as the main character, the woman fleeing a perfect life, is not interesting enough to inspire much interest in the details of a trauma that she endured at age 9 and that has colored her relationship with her mother.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, August 25, 2005

By	Delilah "Delilah" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I loved The Secret Life of Bees and was expecting to love this one. I was very disappointed. I may as well have read a Harlequin romance. The plot was a predictable cliche, the characters were unsympathetic, and it was boring. I would recommend readers skip this one and hope the next novel is better.