I found much to like in this book. The subject is edgy and it deals with experiences most of us have lived through. We have either played the role of Jessie "I want some time apart." Hugh, the receiver of Jessie's declaration, or Brother Thomas: a not completely innocent bystander. (I think in the state she was in, it could just as likely have been another man.)

Sue Monk Kidd gets inside the minds of these characters and writes knowingly about the inner conflicts and turmoil each one experiences. She defines her relationship with Hugh in two telling statements: she refers to Hugh as a "benevolent puppeteer" and in another place, in a conversation with Whit, Jessie thought, "It had been so long since I'd had a conversation like this."
 
Haven't these kinds of conversations been too few and too far between for most of us?

On to what I liked. Sue Monk Kidd gives us some relief from the pain of the participants by means of her beautiful writing, humor, references to a few books and authors, paintings, and other literary gems you will find for yourself.

Each reader will find their own pleasures.

A few of mine were: the definition of rebooting, Dominic's offer to take brother Thomas to see a TV show about the shooting of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the story of two suns, and "if sex is a conversation...."

"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." Intriguing first line. The author did a good job painting a picture of a bored wife who found excitement in the most unusual place. Great job with weaving a dream-like location too. Where is this Egret Island anyway? For some reason, I imagine this book being made into a movie with Diane Lane as the lead. Probably because it is so much like Unfaithful (in terms of infidelity as a theme) and Nights in Rodanthe (in terms of the setting). But the real meat of the matter is the secret of the Mermaid Chair, and why the bejesus did Jessie's mother cut her finger off? The ending is just "ideal", exactly where i would want Jessie to be. It's just a little devoid of bells and whistles and the "grand" finale.

Rant incoming sry - I have so many qualms. Unfortunately, this book read like a Wattpad fan fiction I would’ve loved in the 6th grade. I’m all for living in the gray, but I had such a hard time empathizing with the FMC. Are you lacking identity and direction? You should cheat on your loving, wonderful husband!!!! With a man you had THREE brief, insubstantial interactions with before deciding you were in love with him??!?!? I feel like the storyline had great potential, but this book left me frustrated and emotionally unmoved.

I just finished The Mermaid Chair, a novel I started around a year ago, stopping many times to read almost 15 books in between the first and last pages. For some reason, I picked it up from my library a week ago, finishing almost 300 pages in 7 days. Now let me start by giving it a rating: I’d say 2 stars (out of five). I do not understand how it was a bestseller!

So, what is wrong with the book? Flat. Although there is a lot of diving into the minds of some of the characters, yet it’s as if you’re seeing someone is striving inside whether to go to the shoemaker or to go grocery shopping! Kidd could not get me emotionally involved but in the last 70 pages. The main plot of the novel (Jessie falling out of marriage and in love with a monk) is not closely as interesting as the sub-plot (the reasons behind Jessie’s mother cutting her fingers one after the other).

Kidd tried to make the novel a quest of realizing one’s self (a mystical journey, some might claim). I have to admit the speech at the end when Jessie said “All my life, in nameless, indeterminate ways, I’d tried to complete myself with someone else – first my father, then Hugh, even Whit, and I didn’t want that anymore. I wanted to belong to myself” was powerful but not the journey itself. She has been through physical toil (of being with her mom through the stressful period of cutting her fingers, being hospitalized and through recovery) but not emotional/psychological one.

The novel is a not-so-good version of the masterpiece The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Many motifs (sea/water, (physical) love, clothes…etc.) in The Awakening are used in The Mermaid Chair. But most of them are not skilfully or profoundly employed as Chopin did in her novel. The final scene in The Awakening where Edna goes inside the sea is re-used here but I have to admit in a good way:

“When the water swelled above my knees, I stopped and dug in my pocket for the bits of twine I’d gathered off the lawn at the monastery. I wanted to tie a knot that would go on forever. But not with anyone else. With myself.”

Although the novel ends in the same status as before Jessie starts her self-realization quest- back to her marriage and abandoning her love, yet she has gone through re-birth; she lost her old self, went really deep in sin and suffering just to rise up with a new identity. Or as Whit, her lover monk, said that they were going to be each others’ damnation and salvation.

I threw this book across the room a couple of times before coming to goodreads and reading the reviews. The vitriol that was spouted about the book was fascinating. "Distasteful"! "Gross"! Well, for that alone I had to finish the book. Ladies and gentleman, I was not disappointed. This is a pretty distasteful book. It's, first of all, not written in a terribly interesting way beyond the other issues it has. Every pebble on the beach, every movement of the waves is an opportunity for tangential reminiscing (which is initially what caused me to throw the book across the room). I guess my main complaint is that it's very hard to feel sorry for Jessie. Her complaints seem trite and then incomprehensible. Great husband, successful child, amazing house, disposable income--> but she feels so "empty" inside! Okay, maybe she's dissatisfied about "losin that lovin feeling" with her husband, but don't use quasi-spiritual pseudo-feminist Eat Pray Love type excuses for wanting to bone the hot monk. How is it a statement of independence to have an extramarital affair? Don't make up these excuses, Sue Monk Kidd, be honest with your audience: "Jessie" is the most immature 40 year old around, and selfish and whiny to boot, and she got a warm feeling in her loins and had sex with a monk. In fact, the dialogue and the characterization made me hard to visualize Jessie as 40. I imagined her more as in her early 20s. I should hope that only teenagers and people in their early 20s set their sights on a hottie and declare they are in "love"! Ditto the monk. I imagined his emotional age as 16 as well. "I'm not hiding from the world!..." 300 pages later "....oh wait, I guess I am. Peace, Jessie!" Sue Monk Kidd tries to make it seem like Jessie is getting back with her husband because he is her "true love" but she has spent the pages before that "reveal" basically taking a dump on his heart. It's obvious that if Brother Hottie hadn't taken solemn vows, she would have dumped Hugh like nada. Because she is "independent" now--> she married herself to the sea, after all, and put doodads on an altar and accidentally appropriated some Gullah rituals (I liked the "Magical Negro" touch, Sue Monk Kidd /sarcasm).

The only interesting part was the mom cutting off her fingers...but the real reason she was doing it was frustratingly convoluted and inefficiently explained in 2 or 3 pages--I guess Sue Monk Kidd needed the rest of the pages for descriptions of the beach, unnecessary flashbacks, and sexytimes.

The first sentence of the book could be taken as a warning of adult content: "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."


The Mermaid Chair that inspired the novel, courtesy of wikimedia

The year was 1988, Jessie Sullivan was 42, and she'd wrapped herself in a cocoon of comfortable mundanity. Jessie had escaped from the coastal island where she grew up into the security of marriage and motherhood, and after 20 years, with Dee away at college, Hugh was getting on her nerves. Jessie had been estranged from her mother Nelle, but when Nelle did something exceedingly strange, Jessie ran back to Egret Island, ostensibly to help Nelle, and effectively hiding from Hugh.

Brother Thomas (Whit) was on the brink of a crisis too: acedia, or spiritual listlessness. I've read that a lot of us are feeling this due to Covid. Brother Thomas was sorting out whether he had a spiritual vocation or was using the monastery to hide from the world. He'd probably made it thus far because he got to spend a lot of time in the rookery, alone out on the marsh.

Sue Monk Kidd's gorgeous writing is thick with the atmosphere of imaginary Egret Island in the barrier reef off the South Carolina coast. The novel is loaded with religious and psychological symbolism and feminine spirituality. I wasn't as intrigued by the mermaids as I had been by the black Madonnas of The Secret Life of Bees, but I was fascinated by the Gullah culture personified by Nelle's friend Hepzibah.

Preserving Gullah (youtube)
Those Beautiful South Carolina Islands People (Gullah) (youtube)

Penguin's Reader's Guide, for those who want to dig deeper.

I read the paperback, found at a library sale, printed in the USA, set in Adobe Garamond.

Around the year in 52 books challenge notes:
6. A love story

Ultimate Popsugar reading challenge notes:
38. a book about art or an artist

An interesting book which fell flat for me towards the end.

I don't give away too much in my spoiler, more a general feeling for the book. However, if you do plan to read it, don't read the spoiler.



A woman who has a successful marriage - well-adjusted daughter, loving husband - goes off to Egret Island off South Carolina. She's there, where she grew up, to take care of her mother, a widow and a cook for the brothers at a nearby monastery. It seems her mother has cut off one of her fingers in some kind of madness - or is it penance? This is one of those 'inward-looking' stories where the MC is constantly questioning herself, examining her life and revisiting the past, because despite having it all, she's just ... not ... happy.

(Yeah, well come on, all writers and readers know that (in books) no one 'has it all!')

She falls in love with a monk; her life moves through a series of ups and downs; there's a denouement and explanation for why she's on the island; why she fell in love outside of marriage; and why her mother is obsessed with the local 'mermaid chair' located in the monastery.



This book is similar in many respects to another of Kidd's books, 'The Invention of Wings,' which I recently read. There are themes of the difficult 'mother-daughter' relationship, as well as the importance of travel and distance, of moving over the water, of deep reflection within one's natural surroundings. However, 'Wings' is a much more mature and balanced book; 'Mermaid Chair' is more of a traditional 'woman's read.' This isn't a criticism, but it's the kind of book my mother would have loved.

So three stars, a fair read.

The reviews I read on this book ranged from luke warm to hated it and I was hesitant to read it. I decided to find out for myself and the story got off to a slow start. I can't pinpoint the exact moment but eventually I came to identify with Jessie, the main character. I also enjoyed the vivid description's of life - sights, sounds, smells, sensations - on Egret Island and the surrounding estuaries and creeks So. Carolina's barrier islands. Some of Jessie's inner struggles mirror my own and it was enlightening to see them outside of myself on paper. She's confused about who she is and wants to reconnect with a passion and love for living life. She seeks to redefine herself and connect with the raw, innate form of the person she was born to be and often relieves her childhood by exploring the barrier islands and visiting places from her childhood.

One defining moment for me came when she and Whit discussed how no one understands their need to be alone and dig deep within themselves. Whit said the monks call it a 'solitude of being' (pg 216-217) and that was my "ah-ha" moment. I totally understand what that means! The relationship between Whit and Jessie was adulterous and I don't support that, but I also understood their relationship and why they connected so deeply and instanteously. Through all of this, Jessie was dealing with a dysfunctional mother who cuts off her fingers, as well as her mother's somewhat eccentric friends. Eventually the truth comes out, Jess helps her mom deal with her issues and in the process, also finds healing for herself. When Jessie is finally ready to leave the island - her childhood home - everyone is able to face their future - whatever it may be - healed and stronger in mind and spirit. (I know, long review) I ended up really liking this book and thought it ended well.

This has to be one of the best opening paragraphs ever:

"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."

So much tantalizing plot is known from the start. Jessie, the 'I' of the paragraph, returns to the South Carolina island where she grew up after her mother - who cooks for a nearby monastery - has cut off one of her fingers. While Jessie has never truly recovered from the loss of her beloved father when she was nine, this return triggers more memories and puzzles - many involving her mother.

The highly symbolic mermaid chair of the title (what is one's true home? Mermaids are caught between sea and land...)lends itself to explorations of love, faith, fidelity and the nature of the soul.

So close to 5 stars except…

This book needed more. To reach full emotional resonance, we needed to see a few more scenes.

We needed more scenes of Hugh and Jessie’s life together. We needed real examples of Jessie feeling discontented or dismissed. Jessie tells us that she feels these things, but we don’t see concrete examples of it, at least not enough for me. In the scenes between Jessie and Hugh, he appears to be a loving and supportive husband. Later, Jessie explains that she felt suffocated by that support (like he was in a father role for her) but I did not see examples of this in the scenes of their actual life together. We need to know more! Did Hugh tell Jessie her art wasn’t important or imply that it wasn’t? Did Jessie feel pressured to marry Hugh or have Dee earlier than she wanted or take on the majority of the parenting for Dee? I can well imagine that all of these might have happened…but we didn’t see it! And based on what we actually see, Jessie’s discontent and eventual affair seem more unhinged than anything else. Perhaps this is the intended reading. Perhaps we are supposed to see Jessie’s actions as a psychotic break more than a legitimate emotional response. If so, then so be it, but I think the book is trying to make the point that it is a legitimate emotional response and one other women in Jessie’s place might feel. It could have gotten there with more exploration of Hugh and Jessie’s marriage over those 20 years before we meet them.

Similarly, we need more scenes between Jessie and Brother Thomas (Whit). It doesn’t make sense that they fall in love so quickly. Their attraction to each other starts off strong and I can absolutely understand a physical affair starting quickly. But the emotional affair did not make sense, at least from Jessie’s end. She is suddenly not only attracted to this man but fully in love? To the point she will leave her 20 year marriage that to the reader looks pretty good and which she admits is pretty good? She’s a 41 year old woman! I would think she would have more wisdom to distinguish between love and lust or love and the imagination of “what if.” The emotional affair would have made sense if we had access to scenes from Hugh and Jessie’s marriage better illustrating her feelings of confinement and discontent and a slower paced relationship between Brother Thomas and Jessie showing how Brother Thomas offers to Jessie the romantic and spiritual connection that she believes Hugh cannot give her.

Nevertheless, this is a good book and all the more frustrating because it is good and could have been so much better with this additions!

This is the second novel by Sue Monk Kidd that I’ve read, and I loved it. Jessie, the protagonist, reluctantly goes back to her remote island home, leaving behind her college-aged daughter, and psychiatrist husband of twenty years, Hugh. She needs to help her mother who’s recovering from a self inflicted injury. The moment Jessie arrives on Egret Island, the story becomes both a love story, a mystery, and a mystical, spiritual journey. Ms. Kidd wields language with the skill and beauty of a poet. She’s my new favorite author, and, as soon as I finished The Mermaid Chair, I picked up The Secret Life of Bees.

that sue monk kid might be a one hit wonder..just joking but secrt lives of bees was an all time fav for me and i was extremely disappointed in this book. did not connect with character at all. save your money buy the second book from the author of the kite runner...he proved himself with his second novel.