In The Mermaid Chair Jessie goes back to her hometown to visit her mother. Jessie grows tired of her life with her husband and is trying to find herself. I like this novel and the story of her family's past.

"You can't stop your heart from loving--it's like standing out in the ocean yelling at the waves to stop."

This book was a MUST read for me after reading this author's "Secret Life of Bees" which was one of my favorite books of all time. But this book just did not hold my interest at all. I forced myself to finish it, but was really disappointed.

BLULRB
Jessie Sullivan has been married half her life, and has become accustomed to her role. But when she returns to the isolated island she grew up on to establish why her mother has been behaving oddly, she is to find a lot more than she came looking for.

A loving, exuberant character, who believes herself to be happy, she has forgotten a hidden part of her spirit - the part represented by the beautiful, vibrant and legendary mermaid carved on a chair in the island's monastery. When Jessie falls passionately in love with a monk who is close to taking his final vows, she discovers a place in herself that she had never previously imagined could exist.

"The Mermaid Chair" is the story of a woman trying to save her outgrown life - the roles, identities, securities and illusions she had created for herself - before finally emerging as something far more alive and powerful.


REVIEW

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

I bought this as a bday present for myself a few years ago. I enjoyed the story and characters.

Another popular children's series I've decided to work my way through. Three children, each with distinct talents and personalities, are orphaned and farmed out to a distant, evil relative. They must work together to prevent him from marrying the oldest girl and thereby getting his hands on their fortune.
I can see why these are popular children's novels. They lack the standard sickly-sweet family feeling between the siblings, but still have the classic orphan sense of adventure.
I enjoyed the writing style and the story, but I don't know if I"ll be able to listen to the other 12 without being annoyed by the silliness and predictability.

An excellent (or terrible) beginning to a wonderful series.

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."

When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina - a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother.

There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most, a sense of belonging.

This book was recommended to me by a friend, but I was a little hesitant at first as I read The Mermaid Chair and did not enjoy it that much. This book was fantastic and did not disappoint! I loved the storyline and the charcters; I had a hard time putting The Secret Life of Bees down!

I enjoyed this book, but the end became awfully idealistic and predictable. Until that point, though, it was a great story. I thought the story did an exceptional job of gracefully discussing race issues of the '60's and '70's.

This book takes place in during the turbulent times of the 60's. It is amazingly well-written. I can't say enough about this book. Highly recommended by me.

A quick read full of ups and downs and new experiences meshed with familiar ones. I wouldn't say it is stellar writing, but she does have a great gift for description that allows you to really feel much of the book. A little gem.

I enjoyed this touching story very much.

An emotional journey involving a young southern girl whose mother dies at a young age. I don't want to say more...just read it!

A fantastic read filled with many emotional topics...The south, racism, the role of women in history and much, much more!

Fantastic! Fantastic! Fantastic!

This novel, tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl named Lily Owen who is raised by an elderly African American Rosaleen after the accidental death of Lily's mother. Following a racial brawl in 1960s Tiburon, SC, Lily and Rosaleen find shelter in a distant town with three black bee-keeping sisters. The sisters and their close-knit community of women live within the confines of racial and gender bondage and yet have an unmistakable strength and serenity associated with the worship of a black Madonna and the healing power of honey. Lily discovers the truth about her mother's past and the certainty that "the hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters." The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant that they will bring tears to your eyes. Among the best books I have ever read.

BLURB
Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event.
Now fourteen, she yeams for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart.
South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act.
Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.


REVIEW
This is about to made into a movie with the incomparable Dakota Fanning taking the lead. It sounds perfect and I can hardly wait.

The Lily of the novel is feisty, intelligent and at times desperately unhappy. Although not a particularly troublesome kid, she seems to exist in a ghost world, surrounded by the silent unforgiving oppression of her father. Her only companion is her Nanny Rosaleen, and though good-natured, the servant has a tongue that could skin a cow.

So, Lily decided one day that she has had enough, and she starts across the country, until she is taken in by three bee-keeping sisters. These odd, strong and independent women have problems of their own aplenty (one has mental health problems, beautifully described here as her personal cross to bear rather than as some axe-weilding lunatic fringe character), but they have a lot to teach about life and bees and honey.

As Lily grows under their care, she discovers the truth about her own past, parents and potential.

This book has all the potential to be a kiddy-friendly stinker, but Sue Monk Kidd possesses that wonderful albeit rare quality to create three-dimensional flawed characters that climb into your heart and don't let go. Never santimonious, never preachy, her books are simple and powerful and poignant.

The only tiny flaw I could find was that the father was a kinda unrealised character (though that might have been the point). But in a book celebrating the liberating power of sisterhood, that was hardly the shock of the century!

Read this in 2005. I remember the general outline of the story. I know I really enjoyed this and it was a book club selection.

I found this book through a review I read in a magazine. It's about parents that find themselves as empty-nesters. The husband is happy to have the kids out and his wife to himself. But his wife is feeling depressed at her SAHM status coming to an end. The book wasn't as good as I was hoping for. But I did like the characters and plot. This would lend itself to a sequel.

I had read a review of this in a magazine. I got this one from the library. It was a good book though the subject matter made it hard to read. This is about a woman who travels back to her family home in England and seeks out the truth about the abduction of her childhood best friend.

This is the third book I've read from this author. It was a good story about 3 sisters trying to figure out their relationships and dealing with unexpected pregnancies and infertility. This is a male author who really seems to understand women.

I knew nothing about the Mondavi family when I picked up this book. Whew-what a learning experience! Although the cast of characters can be confusing at times, the well-written book covers many decades of ground informatively. A bittersweetly wonderful story of a families ups and down, with a hopeful bt of "up" at the end.