The Mermaid Chair

by: Sue Monk Kidd

Published by: Viking

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann (Librarian, Carver County, Minnesota)

The Mermaid Chair is set on Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina.

Jessie Sullivan is the wife of Hugh, an Atlanta psychiatrist; mother of college student Dee; and daughter of Nelle Dubois, a cook for the Monastery of St. Senara on Egret Island.

On Ash Wednesday, when she was nine, Jessie's beloved father died in a boat explosion while out to sea. Then on another Ash Wednesday, Jessie receives a call from Kat, a neighbor and friend of her mother's, telling her that her mother has been injured. She learns that her mother purposely cut off her own finger with a meat cleaver.

Jessie has suffered from a feeling of discomfort in her life and at 43, is not sure why. She used to feel fulfilled, making her small painted shadowboxes in her studio, and being a wife and mother. Returning to Egret Island to help care for her mother—and to discover why she did such a horrible thing—she is totally disconnected from her ordinary, everyday life. She suspects that Brother Dominic at the Benedictine monastery may know something about her mother's injury. But, she becomes distracted by her attraction to Brother Thomas, who is at the monastery seeking solace after the death of his wife and unborn child in a tragic car accident. Nelle's good friends Kat and Hepzibah appear to be clueless as to what would cause her distress. But are they really? Jessie makes some startling discoveries about her mother, her father's death, and about herself.

I loved the unexpected ending, the plotting and the complex, multi-dimensional characters. Armchair Interviews recommends The Mermaid Chair and Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, The Secret Life of Bees.