The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd

Title: The Mermaid Chair     Author: Sue Monk Kidd


Pages: 335

Summary: The Mermaid Chair is set on a tiny island off the coast of South Carolina, where a monastery has a chair carved with mermaids and dedicated a saint who was supposedly once a mermaid. Jessie Sullivan leaves behind her husband to come back home to this island after her mother's violent and unexplained self-mutilation. Jessie finds herself relieved to be without her husband and also finds herself falling for Brother Thomas, a Benedictine monk about to take his final vows. Jessie embarks on a period of self-discovery while the secret of her father's death decades before appears to hold the key to her mother's actions. (From Review of Books )


Rating: ******6stars/**********10stars

First Line: In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a benedictine monk.

Last Line: Mouse over---> The beautiful enduring.

Random/Favorite Line: I never could make them understand that what I need was somehow to be alone with myself.

Writing Style/Character Development: The writing style is the one thing that saves this book. Kidd is a terrific, versatile writer. She described things well and overall has a pleasant, alluring technique. The characters, however, fall a little flat in this book. The main character, Jessie, is well written in the present tense, but has very little background aside from one major event in her childhood. The supporting characters are no better off, leaving you with no attachment or emotion towards them, in fact, the character of Whit is the only one with any background besides for Jessie.

Story Line: The basic idea of the story is very interesting, which is one of the reasons why my disappointment in the book is so vast. Nothing in this book really kept me riveted, and often I would put it down in the middle of chapters.

Ending: Cliche and anticlimactic. SPOILER, mouse over ---> The fact that Walter takes her back makes me feel bad for him, not happy for Jessie. While it's nice that she gets to find herself, it's at the expense of her husband and daughter. Not to mention the fact that sleeping with another man is not the way towards finding yourself, and comes off as mid-life crisis smut for bored married ladies.

Overall: I read this after reading The Secret Life of Bees, and was expecting so much more. Secret Life of Bees was incredible and well written, but Mermaid Chair could have been from an entirely different author. The writing style was enjoyable, but not moving, and the book was entertaining, but it was more on the level of what people call "chick-lit" and not literature. Which is fine when you're reading chick-lit but not when you are expecting something with substance beyond finding yourself through an affair and "dealing" with your sick mother. I suppose this makes Mermaid chair amusing, but falls short of it's potential, and very short of the immense potential of Sue Monk Kidd. My recommendation? Skip it all together and read The Secret Life of Bees if you want to enjoy the true talents of Sue Monk Kidd.


xoxo Jennifyr