After I'd learned how my father had died, there was a lifting away of sorrow. I can't explain that, except to say there's release in knowing the truth no matter how anguishing it is. You come finally to the irreducible thing, and there's nothing left to do but pick it up and hold it. Then, at least, you can enter the severe mercy of acceptance.

I think beginnings must have their own endings hidden inside them.

Whit knew it. I could tell by the way he'd slid his hands inside the sleeves of his robe, the sadness caked in his eyes. I could see he'd already made the sacrifice.

I stood still with the waves cascading against my thighs, elongating as they flowed beyond me toward the shore.
Jessie. I take you, Jessie...
The wind moved sideways past my ears, and I could smell the aloneness in it.
For better for for worse.
The words rose from my chest and recited themselves in my mind.
To love and to cherish.
I took the longest string and tied a knot in the center of it. I gazed at it for a minute, then flung it into the ocean at roughly one o'clock in the afternoon, May 17, 1988, and every day of my life since, I return to that insoluble moment with veneration and homage, as if it possesses the weight and ceremony of marriage.

I felt amazed at the choosing one had to do, over and over a million times daily - choosing love, then choosing it again, how loving and being in love could be so different.

Forgiveness was so much harder than being remorseful. I couldn't imagine the terrible surrender it would take.

At first it was difficult for me to go back to the hermitage, to remember you there, to realize I would know you only as a memory or a longing. But finally I'm able to think of our time together without regret. You brought me deeper into life - how could I regret that? I want you to be well. Please be happy.

"The Mermaid Chair" is a story that takes place during that unsure stage of middle age, where the nest is empty, the marriage is old and comfortable, and one thinks, "Now what?"

When Jessie Sullivan receives a shocking call about her mother's act of self-mutilation, she is forced to return to Egret Island, the place where she grew up and then fled...the place where her father died in a boat explosion. Once she gets there, she finds herself infatuated with a monk, and struggling to balance helping her mother and trying to pull her life together.

Although I wouldn't technically call this book a mystery, it certainly has elements of mystery in it. Kidd expertly weaves Jessie's story around mythology and the culture of the islands off of South Carolina, and slowly reveals the secrets of Jessie's past. I love the way that the author eases you into it, and carefully gives the reader peeks into the characters' lives.

I really enjoyed this book. Along with the mythology and legends mixed into the book, the reader gets a glimpse of life as a monk, and being a devout Catholic. These are other elements that are appealing to the curios reader.

My first book by the author and I really liked her writing. Several difficult themes form the story and I thought they were handled very well.
Discontented and restless in her 20 year marriage,Jessie is called back to the little island she grew up on, because her mother needs her. Having totally changed from the happy, smiling person she was before Jessie's father died in a boat fire, her mother now seems to be desperately trying to make amends for something and is very troubled. While trying to figure out how to help her, Jessie meets and falls in love with one of the monks in the monastery next to her mother's house.
The monastery, the mermaid chair there and the legend surrounding it all have significance in her life. As she grapples with her new reality and guilt at betraying her husband Hugh, who is a wonderful man she doesn't want to hurt, the reasons for her mother's behaviour seem to her to lie in their past.
The story and the relationship Jessie has and her conviction of what is good for her at this stage of life raised some questions which the author addressed very nicely.
The beauty of female friendship also forms an important part of the narrative.

Overall I found this a very nice read and her other books are already on my to be read list.

Jessie is a middle aged housewife who returns to her childhood home to care for her mother who is self harming. While reconnecting with her past she grapples with whether her marriage is worth saving or if the monk she has fallen for will make her happy.
While I liked this book I didn't love it. The story felt predictable, I was not able to relate to any of the characters, and at times it felt a little bit drawn out. It hooked me from the beginning though and I was curious to find out what this big secret was that everyone was keeping. I enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees more.

***Spoiler alert***
I read The Mermaid Chair coming off a string of bad books I couldn’t finish. Even though I did finish The Mermaid Chair I have mixed feelings on how to rate it.

I love Sue Monk Kidd’s writing – her examination and insight into human nature, her complex characters.

I could relate to Jessie, the main character, which I think is what kept me going. I understood her relationship with her husband. Even though he was a good man, she had lost herself in their relationship. I saw her love affair with the monk as her quest to get in touch with her own spirituality.

But the book had nagging flaws that kept it from becoming a more worthy story in my mind.

The mother’s alarming behavior was the inciting incident that sent Jessie on her journey back home. As a writer with a fascination with what drives people to make curious, dangerous, or bizarre choices, more than anything I wanted to know what drove her mother to such extreme measures as chopping off her fingers.

And this is where the story fails, at least for me. After I finished the book, for the life of me I could not remember what compelled her to lop off two appendages.

I had to return to the book and re-read the end. Although several theories were presented, Jessie never really understood what made her mother do it either.

What? I’m flabbergasted. I can’t fathom how the pale conclusion for this aspect of the story managed to make it through the final edits. Did I miss something?

Then there was the centerpiece of the story, the Mermaid Chair, which just seemed odd. If it had just been part of the town’s history, it would have made delightful sense.

But as part of some strange folklore the Catholic monastery had adopted, this seemed very far-fetched. I had to force myself to sweep aside my protestations in order to stay with the parts of the story I was interested in.

I neither loved nor hated this book. But I don’t think I’ll forget it either.

I thought The Mermaid Chair was a Secret Life of Bees for the grown woman.
Sue Monk Kidd really gets in to the soul of a woman's feelings and you grow extraordinarily attached to the characters. I am probably being presumptuous but my first reaction is men will probably not find this novel as intriguing as women but hey, you might just surprise me. I enjoyed the setting being close to home and also the religion in the background made the story even more compelling.

I first gave this book 4 stars as I struggled with how much I truly liked it. Now, several weeks later sitting to write a brief review, I found that it's multiple themes continue to resonate with me, and I added the 5th star. I found the imagery of the island setting, and the mom's house, and the church, and the outdoor scenes, just wonderful. Using the Sue Monk Kidd's own form of art (writing) to parallel her main character's art (painting), SMK put me in her story. Then the characters were also vivid in their struggles and, more pertinent to the story, their mistakes. While I sensed at the midpoint that, while I thought I saw what was coming and what I saw left me feeling it would not "end well" for the main characters, the author pulled off the upset by making what I thought would me "not well" into a wonderfully melancholy and hopeful ending. Not a bang, but something softer, and something almost sensible, and still very sweet. But not an ending with a tidy little bow, because you are left to wonder, and maybe to hope, that it ends well. No other ending would have made sense for me, as much as I wanted another ending earlier in the book.

We all have likely struggled with a decision or two that would change the course of our lives. The Mermaid Chair reminds us that there are no guarantees that there are easy answers to tough questions. There are often easy choices, but too often the right choices are the tougher choices. The affair in the book symbolizes to me the "easy" choices that we "want" to make. The fantasy life we pretend we can have. However, the affair is ultimately seen by the main character for what it was - a temporary cure for a symptom rather than a cure for a condition. I believe there are too many real world similarities where the symptoms are continually treated at the expense of the emotional condition that remains untreated, which is why I found the ending to be bittersweet. She resolved herself to overcoming her condition of wanting "more" or at least "different" and began to see what was in front of her from the beginning.

I had not read SMK previously, and was led to this book by someone who had. I am thankful for both that friend and now this book.

Wow, that was some rambling. If you are still reading, I loved the book. More a coupe of months later after skimming it again than I did after reading it the first time.

The main character in this book just seemed like a whiner to me. Boo hoo, my husband won't "let" me be myself. Ummm, let's see, is it his job to "let" you be yourself, or was that your job all your life while he was supporting the family so you could putz around decorating your lovely Victorian house and messing with your little collages that never go anywhere? I found nothing wrong with her husband. He seemed like an intelligent, sensitive guy, and the minute he lets her out of his sight she's boinking a monk. This is her solution to him not "letting" her be herself. Gimme a break.
Plus, this is the second book Kidd wrote with weird new-Agey, quasi-feminist quasi-religious rituals in them. It might seem deep to some people, but to me it just seems frivolous and hokey. Religion is serious business. throwing threads in the ocean and holding hands is just girlish silliness compared to a real religion. I'm not sure what the point of this stuff is supposed to be.
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DNF at 40%. Just …. Idk not my time in life for this book.

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd takes place in the early 2000’s on Egret Island, South Carolina. The story centers around Jessie Sullivan, a woman in her early forties, who returns to her childhood home on the island to care for her mentally ill mother. While on the island, Jessie embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting her past and reassessing her life and marriage. Jessie appears as if she is going through a mid-life crisis. Possibly brought on by her care for her mother and being back in her childhood home. The book lacked connection and dragged frequently. I prefer strong female characters and Jessie doesn’t fit that characteristic. Jessie doesn’t really fit anywhere and then the intimate encounters with a monk. That did it in for me.

Ok this one is going to be hard to review. A year or so aga I heard some spoilers from an interview with the author of this book. I thought it sounded really psychotic. For some reason I picked it up this year. There are some elements that really bothered me. For example why does one have to have an affair to "find" yourself. On the other hand I really related to some of the emotions that the main charecter experienced. She created some art work that was her awakening and for some odd reason I really connected with that. Maybe I should start painting (j/k). There are some really strange elements, yet it was not as psychotic as I thought it would be once I read it. I would not highly reccomend this book. There are many other books out there that teach the same self-discovery themes with out the psycho stuff and affairs. This affair to "find" ones self seems to be a common theme. This lady even had a really good husband (not that it makes it ok when the spouse is horrible, well maybe j/k). Maybe I should write her (except for the small little detail that she isn't real)and tell her what it is like to not have a spouse in your life who loves you. I also gained a realization that we all have such differing trials, for some the trial is to have someone who loves you.

Another book that went into the trash after reading it lest it fall into the hands of an unsuspecting reader. It was hard to believe this was written by the same author of The Secret Lives of Bees, an excellent read.