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The Mermaid Chair: A Novel
 
 
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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...)
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (590 customer reviews)

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Frequently Bought Together

The Mermaid Chair: A Novel + The Secret Life of Bees + When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Plus)
Price For All Three: $36.26

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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)

More About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
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, rousing us at 5:04 A.M. to what could only be a calamity, then rain pummeling the roof of our old Victorian house, sluicing its sneaky way to the basement, and finally small puffs of air coming from Hugh's lower lip, each one perfectly timed, like a metronome. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mermaid chair, whirly girl, turtle skull, slave cemetery, crab trap, marsh island
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Father Dominic, Brother Thomas, Dom Anthony, Egret Island, Father Sebastian, Ash Wednesday, Brother Timothy, All-Girls Picnic, Caw Caw General, Max's Café, Mermaid Tears, Bone Yard Beach, Julia Child, Reverend Father, Great Silence, Jessie Sullivan, Nelle Dubois, Brother Bede, Bull's Bay, Caw Caw Creek, Chagall's Lovers, Father's Day, Legenda Aurea, Senara's Day, Thomas Merton
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590 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.7 out of 5 stars (590 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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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.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic Nonsense, August 29, 2005
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.
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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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as bad as everyone says
Thank god I read the reviews AFTER the book. I borrowed the audio book from the library and perhaps the narrator is the reason my experience was pleasant because I didn't find the... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Jennifer L. King

3.0 out of 5 stars Traveling Back
When you become an adult you have your life figured out and know what you yearn for. Right? Is that always the case? Jessie might not have it all figured out. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Lauren M

2.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic and boring romance
All in all, a very mediocre read. I was disappointed in this book, as I did enjoy reading "The Secret Life of Bees," and this book had also received such high praise. Read more
Published 16 days ago by C. Curran

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyable...
The story kept me interested the whole way through. Really well written and researched. The perfect read for the priestess journey.
Published 1 month ago by Kim Smith

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as her first...
I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees and was hoping to like this one as well. This book left me WAAAAY wishing I hadn't read it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by P. Dagupion

1.0 out of 5 stars An Attack on the Catholic Church
I read through half the book and realized it was an attack on the Catholic Church. A priest helping someone commit suicide in a Catholic Church? I am offended. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Joyce B.

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
Writing about a mermaid who became a saint, conducting a assisted suicide in a church with members of the clergy present. What a bunch of junk. Read more
Published 2 months ago by catholic mom

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd is an excellent read. It holds your interest so that you cannot wait and see what happens next. Read more
Published 2 months ago by weser

3.0 out of 5 stars not too bad.
This was an interesting story, of midlife crises of possible mental illness,and of secrets and truths. Read more
Published 2 months ago by S. Sharp

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked better than "Secret Life of Bees"
I liked this book more than I thought I would, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I wasn't really expecting a southern-set fiction book, for some reason I thought it would be one... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Candace Beauchamp

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