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.

I had a lot of difficulty relating to the protagonist, who seems to have a very caring and attentive husband but at the start of the book, for some reason, has grown tired of him. Or maybe not of him specifically, but of who she is in the marriage, or of being his wife. There simply weren't any good reasons given for why she should feel as she does, and the husband is presented as very kind and giving.

I also didn't like the subtext of the story, as I interpreted it, which seems to be that the protagonist couldn't have possibly grown any more as a woman or even a person *without* cheating on her husband. It seemed a big cop out and rationalization to me, and as a woman now married for over 17 years, I'd like to think that if a day should come when I feel bored and tired of myself and my marriage, I'd have some better and less hurtful ideas about how to improve things. Marriage or personal counseling, for example.

If the author's intent was to show how a woman manages to escape from the womanly trap of being defined only in relation to one's male partner, I think she failed because the author allows her protagonist to escape the husband trap only by stepping into a lover trap. I prefer feminine stories of growth that show the women rising above their romantic entanglements, and revealing their true character by keeping their priorities in life straight.

Granted, this lady did not set out specifically to find some other man to connect with, but as soon as that man appeared she was quick to jump in with both feet, and with scarcely a thought about the impact her decision would have on her husband and (adult) daughter. In the end her long-suffering husband takes her back, so there's very little fallout from the affair.

I might've enjoyed the book more, and been made less angry by it, if it ended with the protagonist losing her marriage and being somewhat alienated from her daughter. Not as a punishment, but as the cost of the choices she made. Then, the message of the story would be that opportunities for personal growth often come at a cost, not only to ourselves but to our loved ones, and sometimes the price for that growth is too high.

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 was so disappointed in this book. This is what happens when I refuse to read summaries before I pick something up. I am so tired of these types of books: white middle-aged woman isn’t satisfied with her life now that her kids are away from home, so she decides to “find herself” and woops! looks like that involves having an affair. Just — can we get away from this story? It’s not compelling. I’m tired of stories that focus on cheating as a way of finding what you really want in life and finding out what satisfies you. I get that it happens, but there are so many ways this story can be told and most of them don’t end up with me hating a main character I’m supposed to root for, because s/he is a selfish person who has no compassion for their significant other’s feelings.

Also, the main character immediately fell in love with the guy she cheated on her husband with. IMMEDIATELY. She saw his face and was started daydreaming of spending a life together with him, regardless of how he thought about it and what he wanted. Just. Ugh. WHY?!

If we ignore the adultery and awkward affair, though, it’s actually quite a nice story. I wish it had only focused on the aspects of the main character re-examining her past, getting to understand her mother a little better, and reconnecting with her childhood home. She grew up on a small island, which is a character in its own right, and I loved the details of all the various creatures and plants living in it and the lifestyle of the people who made their homes on it. I also appreciated the mythology of the Mermaid Chair and the story it was given. I felt like all of this was the heart of the story, and it could have easily been told without all the cheating and weird love-at-first sight (but really lust) stuff, but that’s fine.

Of course, read it if it interests you, but this wasn’t really my kind of thing.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

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.

This probably isn't the best time to write a review of this book since I just finished it a few hours ago and am still quite upset by it. The reason I began the book was because of the name, first of all, and also the story takes place on an island right off the coast of South Carolina. I grew up in South Carolina and miss it very much and so I started reading.

The first part of the book dragged a little, although I loved the descriptions of the south and the ocean. As the book picked up I began to feel torn as to whether or not I was disgusted by the main character or recognized parts of my past self in her. Perhaps a little of both. While I've finished the book and restrained myself from throwing it across the room (I did check it out from the library afterall), I find myself questioning the strength of marriage and trust...once again.

I dog-eared a few pages that I felt were simply poetic. Here is one of those quotes that I particularly appreciate.

"These paroxysms were, I realized later, a kind of aftershock. They would come and go for weeks, moments of violent disorientation in which I couldn't recognize myself, completely breaking apart how I understood my life, all the joints and couplings that held it together. It was the peculiar vertigo, the peculiar humility, that comes from realizing what you are really capable of. Those aftershocks would gradually taper off, but in the beginning they could almost paralyze me." p.201

DNF at 40%. Just …. Idk not my time in life for this book.

Several years ago, when I read the Secret life of Bees I made it a point to read this other book from Sue Monk Kidd. This past month I joined a group of ladies Book club. The hostess of our first gathering had a closet full of books she has marked to read. She gave me a tour of it and when I read aloud the title of this book she told me I could borrow it and return it next month at our next reunion. Thus, being pressured for time, I read it as soon as I could :)

The setting of this book is Egret Island in South Carolina, a mangrove paradise where alligators and egrets are a daily part of the scenery, and where the heroine goes to help her crazed mother recover from a self mutilating agony. However, this heroine, who has a lovely husband, deserts all but her wanton desires to have an affair with a young priest that is more a park ranger than a devout. As fate takes a hand in this drama, everything turns right side up in the end, and the heroine gets cured of everything, including the guilt she has carried all these years of accidentally killing her dad.

The story is charming and nicely set, though the plot is thinly veiled. The heroine seems weak and vacillating and more of a sampler of life than a real committed being. I liked what happens to her though I wondered if she really deserved it. Does that sound strange? It is as if she moves through life guided by the ebb and flow of the tides and has no true internal compass to guide her. Her supposed affair, which she feels so strong about one minute, is so easily let go on the next, and is her marriage and her bonds with her mother. I feel that this character had potential for growth but that somehow it went undeveloped.

The concept that I liked a lot is "Solitude of Being". It is simply that time we all need to be alone in order to grow and listen to our internal voice, and one that so many of us desperately fight not to hear.

There was also a phrase that rang true to me in which the heroine and her brother are "partners in surviving mother" (pg 253). I felt that was a very intuitive phrase in which siblings somehow help each other through childhood that most often is a war field for so many children.

There is also the phrase "Forgiveness was so much harder than being remorseful. I couldn't imagine the terrible surrender it would take (to forgive)" (pg.324). How true this is and so well put.

Lastly a quote from RUMI: "Lovers do not finally meet somewhere, they are in each other all along". Hmmmm... How lovely the sentiment.

I loved this book, but reading most of the reviews, it seems like most people hated this book. I do think "The Secret Life of Bees" was better--I enjoyed the characters and storyline in Bees more so than "The Mermaid Chair."

The main character of Jessie drove me crazy sometimes because, as everyone thinks, she could be so selfish sometimes when it came to her mother and her husband. True, it's a little unbelievable Jessie would choose to pretty much ignore her mother's mental state and spend most of her time and energy in love with a monk. But when you think about it, their relationship had been strained for a long time and people can be in denial and choose distraction over reality. In fact, I'm surprised Nelle and Jessie didn't get into more fights after their long estranged relationship. I didn't feel like Hepzibah's character added anything substantial to the ladies' frienship or the novel. Lastly, I did not understand this great "love" between Jessie and Whit. To me it wasn't love but a selfish act both felt like they needed to indulge in. Readers remember the shoe salesman question?

Despite all these complaints, which seem to concern a lot of the main points of "The Mermaid Chair," I loved all the small things about this novel--all the background stuff. What I enjoyed about this book were the tales of the mermaid and the mermaid chair, the town's annual mermaid chair ritual, Max the eternal dog, Kat "the no nonsense" best friend, descriptions of Jessie's box artwork and her mermaid paintings, the island's topography, the descriptions of Jessie, Dee, and Hugh's birthday follies, and most of all the touching memories between Jessie and her father. The last plot twist about Jessie's father surprised me. I for one did not see it coming.

I think that everyone had super high expectations of this book after the amazing success of The Secret Life of Bees (which I loved). This was a good book. I enjoyed it. But it wasn't in the same league with SLB. The characters, as always, are quirky and likable. The imagery is rich. The setting is magical, a place I'd really like to go. And the story is engaging. But something about it seemed more Nicholas Sparks-y than I expected. It's half good literature and half trashy romance novel with a predictable ending. But then, sometimes that's kind of fun too. And of course, it made me cry. Props to any book that can carry that off. I'd recommend it as a stand-alone, but don't expect it to be anything like SLB except for the strong women, the Catholic themes, the theme of the child who thinks she has killed a parent and the evocative poetic language.

This book is in the middle of an almost favorite to favorite book. I just loved how it was written and the story itself was really really good. It made me cry and thought me a lot about change, love, forgiveness and also about SELF-DISCOVERY. This is a woman's book, a mommy book and I loved it. However, it was hard for me to accept that the woman is having an affair with a Benedictine MONK. I'm a Catholic and was educated in a Benedictine school. I'm not usually conservative when it comes to stories and plots but it was really hard to swallow. What I do is pretend that Whit was a fisherman and not a monk. It was just to weird for me, but its a good book nonetheless. If you have an open-mind, you might love it.

Maybe it was just the wrong time to have read this book, but I hated the main character, found the "instant-love" ridiculous and decided that though the writing wasn't too bad the story is too contrived to actually be any good.