She had an affair with a monk? (The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd)

Member Name: nickyturnill

Product:	The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
Date:	19/02/06 (2208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A short, easy to read book . Worth a look if you enjoyed the Secret LIfe of Bees .

Disadvantages: Unbelievable, with a dislikable main character.

The Mermaid Chair.
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From the author of 'The Secret Life of Bees' comes a second novel enchantingly called the Mermaid Chair, recently published back in 2005. Having enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd's first novel immensely I jumped at the chance to read her latest offering. Here's what I thought.

The Story-Line.
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The story is told from the perspective of Jessie Sullivan in 1988. Jessie is a 42 year old women who is happily married to Hugh, a practicing psychiatrist. They have one daughter, Dee, who has recently left for college. Jessie feels lost after Dee leaves home. She has been a housewife for years (alongside producing the odd painting here and there) but now she is bored…

Early one morning Jessie receives a call from her mother's best friend. Kat has called to tell her that she must return home. Her mother, Nelle, has purposely cut of one of her fingers with a meat cleaver. Why would anyone do that?

So Jessie returns home, alone, to Egret Island where she grew up. This tiny island, just a short ferry trip from main land Carolina, has a population mostly made up of monks, for on the island is a Monastery.

Jessie has not been home for years and years. Not since Nelle refused the wear the beautiful red silk pajamas they had brought as a present because they had a dragon embroidered on them. Nelle is an intensely religious women and she was disgusted by the pajamas, creating a scene which made Dee, just a little girl at the time, cry. Jessie left and vowed never to return.

The island had never been the same for Jessie after her father died in a boat accident when she was a little girl anyway. The island is filled with tragic memories and her relationship with her mother has deteriorated since her father's death.

Back home on the island, Jessie attempts to talk to her mother to find out why she sacrificed her finger. This isn't very successful, her mother isn't interested. So Jessie entertains herself in other ways. She has an affair with a monk. Brother Thomas, or Whit as he is more personally known to Jessie. A large part of the story thus concern Jessie's affair with Whit alongside her time attempting to persuade her mother to disclose her secret.


My Opinion.
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I read The Mermaid Chair quickly in just a few days. It is an easy, lighthearted book to read and it isn't too long. I did enjoy it but at the same time it is unbelievable and there are many things I found annoying about it….

My main problem with the book was the main character, Jessie. She is a generally selfish and unlikable character and this is a big problem for the book. I just couldn't understand or bond with Jessie. She justifies her affair as reasonable in order to broaden her horizons and 'enlighten' herself. An incredibly selfish point of view.

The ending was also annoying. I know I shouldn't include spoilers but I think it is necessary in part. I won't tell you Nelle's secret, which admittedly is an interesting revelation and I did enjoy this part of the book. But all of the parts involving the affair with the monk are painful. At the end Jessie and the monk decide things won't work out between them after all and Jessie goes home to her husband who forgives her almost immediately. These scenes were really unbelievable and I disliked them.

Another problem for me is that although the book is written simply, Sue Monk Kidd has felt the need to chuck in the odd 'big' word. The kind of words I would have to look up in the dictionary to understand. Although on the whole you could grasp the meaning through the context, I found this an odd thing to do given that the book is otherwise really quite simple, it just didn't fit in with the style of writing utilized.


About the Author.
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Sue Monk Kidd was born and raised in Georgia. She began writing The Secret Life of Bees in 1997 and it was published by Viking in 2002. The book tells the story of 14 year old Lilly who runs away with her black housekeeper. They find sanctuary with three beekeeping sisters who take them in. This book has sold more than 4.5 million copies, spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list. It was awarded the 2004 Book Sense Paperback book of the Year and was nominated for the Orange Prize.

For more information about the author please see http://www.suemonkkidd.com/


About the Book.
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Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Viking (April 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 0670033944

The Mermaid Chair was number one on the New York Times bestseller list, following publication, for six months. The book won the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction.

Summary.
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If you enjoyed the Secret Life of Bees then this book is worth a read, I do recommend it but only just….. Three stars is really all the book deserves in my eyes. So certainly don't get your hopes up, it is never going to be a literary classic. If you haven't read anything else by this author then I don't recommend you start here. The Secret Life of Bees is really a much better book on the whole.

Summary: Worth a read if you enjoyed the secret life of bees but don't expect too much......