The Mermaid Chair

Soul Satisfying Book

In The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd does for fiction what the Flemish masters did for painting. She imbues each scene with so much reality it unfolds in your mind like a memory.

You can taste the salty sea air and smell the murky island scents of Egret Island. You feel every horrific and blessed thing that Jessie experiences.

I have never fallen so completely in love with a book before. Her writing is beyond beautiful. It¿s startling and humbling. I found myself nodding and rereading lines, thinking YES that is exactly how it feels but how did she capture it so perfectly?

The book is brimming with brilliance. Some of my favorite lines are:

¿The mind is so good at revising reality to suit its needs.¿

¿There¿s release in knowing the truth no matter how anguishing it is.¿

¿Sometimes the heart wanted what the soul demanded.¿

The story felt like a mid-life crisis crossed with a finding oneself journey.

Sue Monk Kidd¿s website describes the story as ¿the transendent tale explores the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. Here is an unforgettable love story, between a woman and a monk, a woman and her family, and ultimately a woman and her own soul.¿

I think of it as a spiritual journey that leaves Jessie and the reader forever changed by calling into question the bonds of love and commitment. By reminding us that everything is a choice. Whether to leave a husband, to reunite with a parent, to be fully alive.

Sue Monk Kidd is a master of the writing craft. Her ability to set the scene is breathtaking and realistic. Her dialogue is poignant. Her character¿s internal thoughts vivid and engaging. There was not one point in the book where I wanted to put it down. Every aspect of the writing was engaging. I will be rereading this book for years to come, hoping to gain insight into how she does it.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

different feel than Bees

This is much more a love story for adults than Secret life of bees. Well worth a read, and would make a great beach book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Plot is too thin to sustain a full novel.

Here's the plot: Jessie, 42, is questioning her marriage as she takes care of her emotionally unsettled mother. Jessie has a brief affair, learns the truth about her father's death, and they all lived happily ever after.

It's that thin. I can't believe someone made an entire novel out of something so flimsy. The author tries to make it into something sacred, scraping for metaphor with hackneyed symbolism (water, fire, purification rituals) and tenuous ties to Roman Catholic mysticism, but in the end it is repetitive and trying. There is no richness here, only a lot of set dressing.

For some odd reason the protagonist is narrating the story (set in the late 1980s) as if it were decades ago; you get to the end of the book and find it was only a year ago. Why the late 1980s? Why all of the references to the politics of the day, to Mr. Coffee and Sony Walkman, and the myriad other product placements in the narrative? There's no sense of why there was a need to anchor the story so firmly in that period.

Briefly concentrating on a few of the other characters of the story were anemic at best. There are Kat and Hepzibah, the two old friends (think Ya-Ya Sisterhood) of Jessie's mother who know all of the secrets but have about all of the back story of wallpaper. There are the monks of the neighboring abbey who are as two-dimensional. There are some fake saints and saints tales, but these don't add substantially to the story. There is Jessie's brother in California who is mentioned mainly in retrospect; you really have no idea why he has turned to Buddhism and moved so far away.

When at last Jessie's mother releases her awful memory, it's not so awful; it's just garden-variety grief and guilt over aiding her husband to die (like we didn't figure that out right away).

It's a waste of time and money.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Buy The Secret Life of Bees pass this one by

I bought this book for my mom cause she loved the Secret Life of Bees, do not buy this book you will regret it. She hated this book and told me all the details daily as she read this book, she could not have hated a book more. Save yourself do not buy this book it is really bad.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Sue Monk Kidd does it again.

Just when I was so in love with "The Secret Life of Bees", I read this one and I'm so thrilled with it now. I love her writing and the way she weaves and winds around her characters. I loved it from beginning to end.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Love It!

This book is so good I could not put it down. I kept it in my purse and read it at every spare moment and it continued to surprise me and kept me engaged in the story. It was a wonderful story and it was written in a way that allows you to be there with the characters. To see what they see and feel what they feel. I love this book. I read the Secret Life of Bees and this story even beats it which is amazing in itself!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Worth it!

I think it was even better than "Bees". If your over thirty and married or ever been married add another star. Sue Monk Kidd is a gifted storyteller whose wit and imagination allow you to throughly lose yourself in this book. It's also a quick read. Great for Book Clubs.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

LOVED IT

I read it in three sittings. I LOVED it. I also enjoyed the Secret Life of Bees, but I think this book was FAR BETTER! I think so many people can relate to the feelings of the main character of the book, although many would make difference choices than the character did. I found the book to be an easy read. I would suggest it to my friends.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

An Excellent Read!

If I hadn't read "The Secret Life of Bees", I would consider this one of the best books I have ever read. I did think "The Secret Life of Bees" was a bit better story.... but that may be just my particular interest. I disagree with the discussions of "age groups (40+) unless it is referring to 40 +++. I am 66 and thoroughly enjoyed this book. I find that the age and situation of the heroine in any book can be identified with, no matter what our situations as women. What I am not actually experiencing at the time, does not dim in memory or experience. I think ANY woman could identify with the heroine, and it was a really interesting concept and story. I would recommend anything written by Sue Monk Kidd, and I am looking forward to her next novel.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

escape your everyday life

This was a simple story with lively characters. Loved it. Highly Recommend it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not what I expected

Very easy read, suitable for flying

Enjoyed

Liked

Don't waste your money.

I really can't say what this book is about because I quit half way. Nothing about this book was engaging, which was shocking considering how great The Secret Life of Bees is.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ok

No text was provided for this review.

Great read

Loved it!

Just okay- not really worth the read-

This was just an okay book. I wouldn't highly recommend it. This is the story of Jessie who has to go home to deal with her mother who is committing acts of violence. She leaves her husband, Hugh while she is gone and finds herself drawn to a monk (Brother Thomas). Is the power of the mermaid chair a reality or a myth? This was an interesting story but it is unreal, immoral and a bit boring! It is not a story I could relate to, nor would I want to. It is just okay, I wouldn't read it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

ABSOLUTELY AND UTTERLY HORRIBLE

I am not able to understand why anyone would even remotely like this book.
Way too boringly descriptive, not a good story line and absolutely no substance whatsoever. Bland, blah and yawn.
Possibly an OK short story.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not What I Expected

I loved "The Secret Life of Bees" and I was a little disappointed at the amount of sexuality in this book. I feel that it is entirely unnecessary to include such details. The plot was thought-provoking and I appreciated the way the author wove the plot around such an obscure myth. Overall, I enjoyed reading it but I could not recommend this novel to my friends and I will probably not read it again.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

if you love'd "Secret life of Bees" read this...

a very different type of tale from "the scret life of bees" but an inspiring tale nonw the less. Kidd has a way of making the reader connect with the reader so you seem to be part of the story. Great read.

Ehh....

I read this book because I read The Secret Life of Bees, and I must say I was thoroughly dissappointed. I could hardly get through this book. I was annoyed at the main character's selfishness and was overall not impressed. I would not recommend this book if you enjoy fast-paced, gripping books.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.