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I’m going to admit that I enjoyed The Mermaid Chair more than The Secret Life of Bees, however, I don’t exactly think it was that memorable or great, either. I enjoyed the myths and legends, the setting of the island, and all the colorful and magical descriptions, but other than that, I was kind of lost in the religious aspect and what I felt was a slow progression of the story.

Assuming that most of us rate books based on how much we enjoyed the read & how well written it is, I'm struggling to understand the low ratings & dodgy reviews for this book. I'm glad I ignored them and went on a friend's recommendation. What Sue Monk Kidd has produced here is very different to 'Secret Life of Bees' but just as well written (beautifully so) & with a more interesting & in-depth plot. I was drawn in from the first sentence, felt emotionally attached to each and every one of the characters & however unreal some of the situations were the way they were written made them totally believable. Couldn't put it down; loved it.

Post Script

I have since looked up some of the other five star reviews and relieved to find loads of other readers with the same opinion!

In The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd provides one of the finest opening lines in any novel. A beautiful story about the choices and challenges women face in middle age.

An exceptional read! Ate it up in a single afternoon!

In spite of the author's obvious gifts as a writer and some compelling well-drawn secondary characters, The Mermaid Chair left me unconvinced and feeling more than a little irritated with Jessie, Kidd's selfish protagonist. It was hard to feel sympathy for her. She has, by all accounts, a kind, faithful, considerate, and highly responsible husband, and a grown daughter, and she's willing (even eager) to hurt and forsake them both to hook up with a monk.

Descriptions of Egret Island off the coast of South Carolina were stunning enough to almost carry the book--almost. 3 stars rounded up from 2.5

I loved this book. I could see its story being a beautiful, quirky movie. With not the greatest of goodreads ratings, I am mystified as to why. Sue Monk Kidd is such a graceful, intelligent, free-spirited writer. I suggest readers of this book abandon cynicism and daily reality doldrums and instead embrace your heart full of dreams and folklore, with the open understanding of others' life choices. This novel, full of artful mermaid, ocean love, is relevant and faithful, an inquisitive bookclub choice, and such a visual sea-full and soulful journey of independence.

Jesse goes back home, to visit with her mother who is apparently cutting off her fingers in a rash display of abnormal behavior. While on the island, she comes across a monk that she eventually falls in love with. The problem is that Nell is married and has a grown daughter. The story goes back and forth between caring for the mother and the love affair between Nell and the monk.

It is not very well written, and at times reminded me a lot of the "Ya Ya Sisterhood". Everything seemed very "surface". In between the loose fragments of story there was a tale about a Mermaid Chair and the author kept going back to it but I never really felt it tied the story lines together other than providing an island backdrop for the story.

Initially I didn't mind it too much as it is Summer, and it was based on an island.. seemed like easy reading, but then it got silly and didn't really amount to anything. I don't think I will read another book by this author again.

This was just the summer tale I needed about a girl returning home, having a total breakdown while dealing with her mother’s breakdown and confronting all of her demons at once. Oh yeah, there is also an affair with a monk and mermaids. I love the scene where she makes an oath to herself in a sort of marriage ceremony promising to love herself first and most of all. I think we can all take a tip from her on that one ☝

This book came out in 2004 but I've been seeing copies of it all over my town lately. It's been a very weird coincidence seeing it at every store that sells books, so I made the jump. The universe was telling me I had to read it, clearly. Do I believe the universe tells me things? Not always, but it was just getting obnoxious seeing the pretty cover everywhere so I decided... why not? I read all the books anyways, might as well read this one.

I enjoyed this book but it wasn't the best book I've ever read. It was an easy read with an easy to follow storyline, but man... the ending frustrated me. Sue Monk Kidd wrote The Secret Life of Bees, which I enjoyed but I didn't connect with it (no surprise there if you know the subject material). I did love her writing style though and I am a fan!

This book follows a woman named Jesse who is essentially having a midlife crisis, and her Mom cuts off her own finger. She goes back to the island where she grew up, and where her Father died, and tries to figure out what's going on with her Mom. Throw in a storyline where she believes she helped kill her Father, her Mother also seemingly having some kind of midlife crisis, and a monk that Jesse falls madly in love with... while her teenaged daughter and her loving husband are back home. There doesn't seem to be many problems in their relationship, but hey... there's a hot monk willing to have a good time with you around flocks of birds. Why not have some fun while you are away and infuriate your husband who has a specialty in psychology/mental health while you are at it?

The story is all over the place but also very interesting because it's so full of these big hitting moments. Also, the mermaid chair is literally a chair that has mermaids on it in the monk's religious home. There are some myths and stories about it, but it's not a big part of the story like you'd think it would be.

My overall thoughts: This was a great book that I was able to read while drifting off to sleep. It's easy to understand, has enough random plot twists to keep me awake, but also wasn't incredibly engaging because of some of the odd decisions characters make. I like it and I'd read more books by Sue Monk Kidd, but I'm not desperately looking for more books like this one.

Other readers will absolutely love it, but it didn't knock it out of the park for me.

Three out of five stars.

From a blog post I wrote in 2005:

If you've read The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, you probably have high expectations for her latest work, The Mermaid Chair. Bees was beautifully written and made you care about the characters so much that you were sorry to have to leave them at the end of the story. I hope she writes a sequel.

Mermaid Chair has some of the same elements as Bees: quirky characters, long held secrets, romance and long time friendships. But, I didn't feel the love so much. It was an interesting enough story but I never connected to the main character, a woman in her 40s who's feeling distanced from her marriage/husband and who has to return to her hometown to care for her crazy/ill/somewhat estranged Mother. The hometown is actually an island off of South Carolina and home to a Monastery. Our heroine becomes romantically involved with one of the monks while uncovering secrets about her family.

Yeah, I didn't care so much about how it turned out. If you haven't read The Secret Life of Bees, I recommend it highly. As to The Mermaid Chair, it would make for a good airplane book but I wouldn't suggest you go out of your way to read it.

I read this back during my early days of college and remember making faces during the most inane parts.

Our main character Jessie decides to go back to her childhood home after her mother has some sort of mental breakdown and chops off her own finger. What follows is a journey with pretentious symbolism, pretentious characters, BS logic, and nothing of value gets resolved.

Remember that mother who's suffering a mental breakdown? We find out she's actually suffering from major guilt after she performed a mercy killing on her husband years ago. Does she get any actual psychiatric help? No. Help from God? No. Does she go to the police to relive her guilt? No. So what happens to her eventually? Dunno, it's left on a vague note.

Now, throughout the book we're reminded of Jessie's lovely marriage to her husband of many years and of the daughter she bore him. This is a very lovely marriage. They obviously love each other, they respect each other, and everything is awesome. So what does Jessie do to prove her love to her husband? Have an affair of course! With a monk!
WHY does she have this affair? Fuck if I know. The monk is apparently good looking and is rather sweet to Jessie, but was that really enough to justify cheating on your husband of 20+ years?
EVEN MORE, her 'FRIENDS' ENCOURAGE her to cheat. Why? "Because he's her true love". These are the same friends who knew AND participated in the mercy killing.

Now, I am not about to get into a debate whether or not if the mercy killing in this book was indeed a merciful act. But guess what, neither do the characters. There's no anger over this revelation, no debate, no screaming, no accusation, no demand for straight answers. Everything is left vague.

That's the main problem of this book. It's vague on EVERYTHING. Nobody asks the hard questions, nobody acts like a human being, nobody suffers the consequences of their actions. Except the mother, of course, but Mom's journey to recovery is non-existent in this story. Very little is devoted to her mental health.

So after Jessie has her affair with the monk, she goes home. We don't get to see the consequences of her affair. Everything is fed to us within a few short sentences, barely a single paragraph long. The daughter is devastated and her husband is upset, but where's the all the raw anger? Where are the questions of why? Jessie, why did you cheat on me with some young monk? Why did you throw away 20 years of marriage? How can I trust you again? These should be asked and answered. THEY'RE NOT.

The final page ends with Jessie expressing how her husband is indeed her true love and wants his face to be the very first thing she sees when she goes to heaven. This could've been romantic had she not have that affair with some young punk she barely knew for a month.