The Mermaid Chair
2 journalers for this copy...
Author of The Secret Life of Bees.
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I did not enjoy this book as much as Secret Life of Bees. Although it is well written, I never sympathized with the main character and, in fact, if she had been a friend I would have shaken her until her teeth rattled.
Jessie Sullivan is a 49-year-old woman who used college as an excuse to escape her mother and life on tiny Egret island and spread her wings. She met and married Hugh, a psychiatrist who is kind, loving, and has wonderful moments of quirkiness. Together they have a daughter who, when the story opens, has left for college. Jessie's mother intentionally cuts off her index finger, causing Jessie to go back to Egret Island for the first time in years to care for her and discover the reason for this bizarre behavior. During her time there Jessie enters into an affair with one of the monks, Brother Thomas, who is grieving for the death of his wife and unborn child, and begins to "find" her artistic self. Jessie is so self-involved that she does little to deal with her mother's problems and seems blind to the havoc her affair will wreak on her marriage, her husband, and her child. Eventually, the mystery of her father's death is revealed, her mother finally begins to heal from it, and Jessie returns to her husband. The marriage and her family have suffered damage and she and Hugh work through it because she has finally recognized her love for him and his true worth.
I felt that long before this "crisis" with her mother Jessie should have seen that she (not Hugh) had made a very small life for herself. She was to blame for not finding her true artistic potential, not Hugh. He would have been happy to let her spread her wings, but she was afraid of what she would find and chose to narrow her focus to the shadow boxes she made. If she were going to have a 'reawakening' I thought it much more likely it would have occurred when her child went to middle or high school, when she would have begun to have more time on her hands to think (as she did when her daughter went to college). To do so now was too little, too late and she was risking her marriage and the emotional safety of her daughter--a very selfish act.
__________________________________________________________________________________
I did not enjoy this book as much as Secret Life of Bees. Although it is well written, I never sympathized with the main character and, in fact, if she had been a friend I would have shaken her until her teeth rattled.
Jessie Sullivan is a 49-year-old woman who used college as an excuse to escape her mother and life on tiny Egret island and spread her wings. She met and married Hugh, a psychiatrist who is kind, loving, and has wonderful moments of quirkiness. Together they have a daughter who, when the story opens, has left for college. Jessie's mother intentionally cuts off her index finger, causing Jessie to go back to Egret Island for the first time in years to care for her and discover the reason for this bizarre behavior. During her time there Jessie enters into an affair with one of the monks, Brother Thomas, who is grieving for the death of his wife and unborn child, and begins to "find" her artistic self. Jessie is so self-involved that she does little to deal with her mother's problems and seems blind to the havoc her affair will wreak on her marriage, her husband, and her child. Eventually, the mystery of her father's death is revealed, her mother finally begins to heal from it, and Jessie returns to her husband. The marriage and her family have suffered damage and she and Hugh work through it because she has finally recognized her love for him and his true worth.
I felt that long before this "crisis" with her mother Jessie should have seen that she (not Hugh) had made a very small life for herself. She was to blame for not finding her true artistic potential, not Hugh. He would have been happy to let her spread her wings, but she was afraid of what she would find and chose to narrow her focus to the shadow boxes she made. If she were going to have a 'reawakening' I thought it much more likely it would have occurred when her child went to middle or high school, when she would have begun to have more time on her hands to think (as she did when her daughter went to college). To do so now was too little, too late and she was risking her marriage and the emotional safety of her daughter--a very selfish act.
Received this at a mini-meetup from Secretariat.
