dvlish's Full Review: Sue Monk Kidd - The Mermaid Chair
I was attracted to this book by Sue Monk Kidd because I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees. Her writing style is excellent and I looked forward to another of her tales. I was not disappointed by The Mermaid Chair.
This captivating story of a mother and daughter who are consumed with loss and tragedy to the point of self mutilation (in the case of the mother - Nelle) and the purposeful destruction of a marriage of 20 years (in the case of the daughter - Jessie) enfolds you in the heartwrenching pain that each of these women feel that has driven them apart for so many years. The story of The Mermaid Chair will now bring them back together.
The story begins in the suburban home of Jessie and Hugh. She is a housewife who dabbles in art and who has recently seen her only child off to college. Now faced with nothing to buffer what she feels is a strained relationship between herself and her husband Hugh, a psychiatrist. They are awakened by an early morning call that her eccentric and seemingly religious fanatic mother has cut off one of her own fingers with a meat cleaver on purpose.
Jessie is faced with not only the responsibility of going and dealing with whatever is going on with her mother, but also with the opportunity to get away from her life that has become stagnent with time.
She returned to the Egret Island on which she was raised and from which she fled as soon as she was able. She is met at the dock by the eccentric Kat (her mother's best friend) and her mentally challenged daughter. Kat drives her to her childhood home and she begins the long journey of understanding the anguish her mother feels for something that happened long ago.
The island is home to a monastery that, until her accident, Nelle cooked at everyday as a way of serving. She was a fixture in the monastery and endeared to the monks whom she served. Jessie goes in search of answers in some of her mother's oldest friends, the monks.
Jessie is thrust back into her childhood on the island with her brother Mike and with her parents. Her father was killed in a boating accident in which the official report stated that his pipe had sparked and caused a fire that in turn caused the boat to explode. Secretly she has blamed herself all these years because she was the one that had given her father the pipe in the first place. Jessie has carried around her grief and blame her entire adult life and you sense that her return to the island will be therapy for her too.
At the monastery again for the first time in years she comes across all of the same monks whom she knew as a child. There is one new addition, however, and she is smitten from the first time she sees Brother Thomas (Whit). Struggling with his own need to find himself after his own tragedy, Whit and Jessie are drawn together in a passionate affair that threatens to ruin both of their lives as they know them.
This emotional journey is one of self awareness and loathing, love and loss. While she struggles to understand her mother's seemingly crazy behavior in which she would cut off her own finger, Jessie is faced with her own life and not knowing who she is. She is so entwined in her marriage that she has lost her sense of self and doesn't know if being married to Hugh is truly what she wants anymore or if their marriage has simply become habit. Through her painting of the mermaid who's legend is deeply rooted in the history, not only of the island, it's customs and the monastery itself as they honor a mermaid saint, but also in her own childhood. She finds herself drawn into a world and a relationship in which she feels truly alive for the first time.
Through the undying friendship of Kat and others she begins to understand her mother's motives. I can't divulge what they are as that would ruin the ending.
This story is a captivating tale of heartbreak and the courage needed to face one's past. The struggle to find one's self and the quest for true love and happiness. Sue Monk Kidd is a wonderful storyteller who develops her characters in such a way that you feel their heartache and celebrate in their joy. You are enfolded into the world of Egret Island. Written in what I would call 'first person, past tense' the chapters flip from one character to another as they tell their own story and those stories are slowly entwined together.
Deeply rooted anguish mixed with the struggle for understanding brings these characters together in this touching tale.
The Mermaid Chair is a fast read and touching story. A+++
A #1 New York Times bestseller, this dazzling novel of passion and spirituality is penned by the author of The Secret Life of Bees. Soulful in its pro...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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