I got about 120 pages into this book before throwing it across the room. Boring. And that lead character is so melodramatic, I couldn't stand to continue. Who vomits over someone else's severed finger without even SEEING it? Honestly. I worry I no longer enjoy reading after Mom died. Nothing I've read lately has sparked any kind of love for literature in me.

This is the worst book I've read in the past two years. I don't know why I finished it. I don't go for romances to begin with - but this one is pretentious with its pseudo religious themes. But when she pulls out the mysterious Black woman Who Knows Things - and doesn't mention her skin color when she describes her - she really fails.

Love this book

This is a ridiculous story about a selfish conceited person having a midlife crisis and really not caring much about the damage her decisions make. Totally unrealistic men: her cuckolded husband (on learning the truth): “..he’d hoped his suffering was not being squandered, that somewhere inside it was making him pliant and tender.” Right. That’s just where most men go - gosh i hope this makes me soft and fluffy. Right after the homicide thing.
At one point she admits to relating to the princess and the pea - my all time least favorite tale. On 30 mattresses and STILL the bed’s not soft enough?: “I felt as if I’d found the fairytale pea”.
Pretty much everyone else in the story is more interesting and compelling than our protagonist (i use the word loosely). Ugh.

meh.

**WARNING: NO SPECIFIC SPOILERS, BUT MAY HAVE SOME SPOILERS**
religion, adultery, mermaids... a woman "finding herself" through adultery? let's see, what was my problem with this? (she tried to explain some of these, but not enough for me.)

1. you call her mom crazy? really? she did one outlandish thing, otherwise she seemed fine. oh, once she was rude when she got a gift? i don't know, maybe when you have lived with someone truly out of their mind, you know you don't look for ONE event, ONE secret as to why, and you sure as hell wouldn't get it if you did look. i have to argue that this is "acting out", not insanity. and the explanation they finally gave for her acting out didn't even make sense as to how exactly that led to her actions.

2. she supposedly cared for her husband, but fell in love with another guy (a monk). oh, wait. no, she had already decided she didn't want to go home before fortunately that monk walked by, so she could get laid in the meantime since she really NEEDED that. to find herself, you know. she did NOT fall in love. in what world is that love? "i am kind of sick of my husband and ... oooooh, his eyes!" we know nothing of this guy other than one tragedy in his background and that he's currently a monk, and she doesn't seem to know anything additionally herself.

3. let's go back to "she cared for her husband". if really everything was fine, except one thing bothered you, you would never ever try to actually TALK to him? if you were attracted to each other, you loved each other, you had a good family, beautiful home... you just feel like he dismisses your ideas. he made you feel slighted, so you made him feel like his whole world was crumbling. how about, "you know, honey, i feel like you dismiss my ideas." then he can say, "oh, i'm sorry, i didn't realize i made you feel that way." then she could say, "oh, okay, just don't do it again and then i won't f-- a monk after all." maybe it wouldn't be exactly THAT easy, but it sure would be a lot easier to deal with than adultery.

4. she was also restless in her marriage because she lost herself in her roles in life, eh? too bad she didn't have an outlet, her own thing, that her husband supported. like you know, her art, where she had all her supplies and even a cool designated area for her to work on it. again, apparently actually getting more time in with her art, or heck, taking up a new hobby, was more far fetched than just f---ing a monk, so apparently wasn't even considered as an alternative.

5. why in the world was he a monk? was he religious at all? didn't he chose her just cause she happened to walk by, too? and most of all: a monk was sleeping with a married woman without any thought to the fact that it might hurt the husband? not that he would know the pain of a husband losing his wife... oh, wait, he DID. kind of quick to forget your own sad tale when it comes to getting laid, eh? if not religious, shouldn't he had at least not been an ass?

My feelings about Thomas had been such a muddle. I'd let them slosh around in my like dirty water in the bottom of a boat, but now, sitting in the mermaid chair, I felt the sediment settle to the bottom, and everything was very clear to me. I wanted him with an almost ferocious desire. (PG 113)

I'm not going to review this book in a way where I'll look back and be embarrassed about what I strongly wrote about but I am going to be honest:::

I hated this book. I really thought it was about mermaid's somehow, somewhere. In a sentence, it was about an unhappy woman that just wants an affair because she feels her life hasn't had enough adventure. I personally do not like books with the cheating theme because there's that feeling that the author is trying to endorse it to the reader like a subtle "It's okay because you're unhappy and you deserve better." The husband was written in such a sweet way. He was kind, funny, attentive, and handsome. Why couldn't Jessie just have had a conversation with him telling him she needed a vacation alone or talk about her feelings? Are we as a society worried to have feelings and look weak?

I don't know the answer but I didn't like the story line, the characters, and the melancholy atmosphere. Jessie was just a privileged, bored housewife that started acting like a lovesick teenager after meeting a handsome boy in 10 minutes except she was middle-aged and had a mortgage.

I would NOT recommend this.

I am disgusted and tired of how our culture idolizes sex and adultery... This book angers me deeply in its effort to paint fornication and adultery as something GOOD, when it is actually utterly EVIL and brings destruction and deep, deep heartache to SO many people. There is nothing beautiful about the illusion of love within an illicit relationship- all lies, deceit and counterfeit "love." LUST- EVIL EVIL lust is what adultery is- there is no way to make it something other than absolutely devastating and repulsive and destructive... although our culture tries very hard to make it goodness and light. Don't fill your mind with this darkness coming as "an angel of light!" REPUGNANT!

When I saw that this book was on the goodreads "unpopular" shelve, I decided to write a review on why I liked this book. I have a thing about sticking up for an underdog.

Probably the most stated reason that this book is unpopular is because readers compare and contrast it to the author's previous award winning work, The Secret Life of Bees. I think that people who loved the Secret Life must have anticipated that Monk Kidd's follow up would somehow cater to the same audience, and then they were disappointed.

I have not yet completely read the Secret Life, but my English Department is picking it up as a contemporary novel for the curriculum. The decision to make this book required reading for YA's alone tells me that these two books are in totally separate interest categories.

So, why did I like this book? Probably because I loved the setting and could identify with the main character Jesse. If you hold at least four of the six following qualifications you may well like this book:

1 - 30 to 40 something female
2 - Raised Catholic
3 - Love stories about east coast U.S. and old island settlements
4 - Been married for 10+ years
5 - Have a least one child within a few years of of leaving the nest

And this one is not necessary, but it helps...

6 - Have a family story about a kinswoman being involved with an ex Benedictine priest (no, this is not me, but there is a story in my family tree).

I can well understand that many readers don't fit more than two or three of these descriptions, but I happen to be that reader and the Mermaid Chair just happens to be a book for someone like me.

I really enjoyed this book because I thought the author gave a nice twist to what seems to begin a Romance Novel. In the end, the message ends up being about the independence and self-fulfillment of the main character. I thought the colorful characters really added to what makes the novel unique...like the mentally disturbed finger hacking mother, her eccentric life-long friends, and a troop of Benedictine monks. The most important point that I took away from this read was that it's never too late to offer forgiveness, even if they might not accept the gesture.

I'll start this review by saying I usually steer clear of books with adultery. Makes me too uncomfortable. I started this audiobook not knowing it was about adultery until I was already engrossed in it. I thought to myself, it's fiction, it doesn't have to be your Pollyanna view of the world. So I kept listening to the audiobook and I'm glad I did.

First of all Eliza Foss, the narrator, was great, both Southern and male voices.

Jessie's mother has cut off her finger purposely and so Jessie goes to where her mother lives and where she grew up to see if she can find out what's happening. She hasn't been there in a long time. She and her mother had this strange falling out about a robe with a dragon on it that didn't seem like the line in the sand they made it out to be. Jessie's also using this as a way to have a time out from her husband Hugh. She feels like she's drifting without any real purpose. While on the island, she falls in love with a monk who hasn't taken his final vows and they begin a very intense affair. Jessie also seems to fall back in love with the island. There are some family secrets that are revealed. Also Jessie comes to the point where she needs to decide whether she should live her life with or without Hugh or Thomas (Whit), she just can't seem to make up her mind where she wants her life to lead.

Very good book. First time reading this author. I would recommend it.

Dear Sue,

What were you thinking? I don’t want to be mean, but “The Mermaid Chair” isn’t your best work. Your first novel, “The Secret Life of Bees” was wonderful – full of imagery and emotion. I was expecting more of your magic, but “The Mermaid Chair” is just another novel about a middle-aged woman in a rut.

You explore some compelling ideas: marriage, infidelity, betrayal, guilt, forgiveness, grief and faith, but you don’t really add anything to that oh-so-told story. You wrap the issues in a story so farfetched that it reads like a poorly-made TV movie. Without going into every detail look at the story:

Jessie Sullivan - forty-something wife, mother, artist - living comfortably but without great passion. Suddenly, a family emergency throws her into a period of self-reflection. Her mother chops off a finger - intentionally. As Jessie goes to help her mother, a woman with whom she has a strained relationship, she questions her marriage, starts an affair with a Benedictine monk, and discovers secrets from her past.

The story starts as clich�, veers into absurdity (not just a crazy mother, but a crazy self-mutilating mother – not just an affair, but an affair with a monk) and ends with the too-familiar new beginning where nothing is the same, but our heroine has found peace. You ask us to accept this as a vehicle to explore deep emotional and personal choices; it just doesn't work.

Don’t tell us a story – let us feel something. Let us get into the characters’ heads and understand their emotional journey. Everything in “The Mermaid Chair” was a narration – something to be told, not something to experience. I didn’t get to know any of the characters. I didn’t get to feel their emotion. I certainly didn’t like any of them, except, maybe, Max the dog who seems like a really good-hearted fellow.

You worked in some legend and mysticism. The imagery and symbolism of mermaids was nice, as was much of your descriptions of nature, but when it comes down to meat and potatoes, your novel was rather bland. Readers who want another story of female mid-life angst can get their hit from an hour of Oprah; they don’t have to invest time in your book.

Lately it seems like several of my favorite authors are resting on their past success, spitting out mediocre novels knowing that their name will sell the book. You’ve proven that you’re a writer with a unique vision and voice. We, your readers, want more of the magic that you shared with us in “Bees”. Don’t be afraid to challenge us with new ideas, and don’t be afraid to challenge the stereotypes of women’s literature.

Love,
Wormie

WBS!

NO.
NO!

Give me a break. There is NOT love at first sight. LUST.
Not love! Whatever. That just pisses me off and sets a pissy tone for the rest of the book.

Bored woman goes to take care of crazy mom on island that is full of monks. Woman sees monk says "oh, I'm in love, he's part of my soul!" Monk sees woman and decides he's in love. (had nothing to do with not getting any for several years) They screw like rabbits, she decides to stay with her husband and he decides not to take his final vows. Oh, and mom reveals reason for dad's death... no longer crazy.

blah blah blah.

Sorry this is a craptastic review, but the whole "love at first" sight stuff got me all grouchy.