Sue Monk Kidd wrote the best selling novel The Secret Life Of Bees, which was made into a hit film. I read that in a small Greek village one Summer on the coast of Samos, a little island off the coast of Turkey. Problem is, I alternated reading it and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold at the same time, so the two stories are blended together in my mind. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair was also made in to a film, with Kim Basinger.
Jessie grew up on Egret Island off the coast of South Carolina. Married to Hugh, with a grown daughter, she chooses to stay away from her 'crazy' mother and hasn't visited the island in many years. She's an amateur artist whose studio is in a turret of her home - and like Rapunzel, she longs to let her hair down and escape. One night she is called by her mother's close friends - her mother has had an abnormal episode leading to her cutting off her finger. Jessie returns to the island to care for her mother, in the hospital and then at home. What is the deep secret that makes her mother act out in crazy ways?
On the island is a Benedictine monastery which houses a beautifully carved Mermaid Chair, named after the legend of a mermaid who converted into a saint - and by the belief mermaids take care of the local shrimp boats - if you sit in it, your prayer will be granted. Brother Thomas is months before his final vows and looking for answers too, after losing his family to a car accident. When he meets Jessie they begin a steamy love affair.
Her mother's friends are (of course) quirky and fiesty in a Ya Ya Sisterhood kind of way and support her journey to find herself, and the answers to a mysterious family secret. Jessie uses her time on the island to reflect on her stagnant marriage, enjoy secluded rendezvous in a hut Brother Thomas made out on the marsh, and especially, to dig deeper into the mystery of how her father really died many years ago.
Taking place in South Carolina, with the marshy waters and waterfowl refuge, I envisioned a golden Prince of Tides landscape. I was surprised to see the movie they made of this book was filmed on the rugged British Columbia coast in Cowichan Bay, Canada!
Despite touching on a wide range of subjects such as Thomas Merton, Catholic saints, Celtic spirituality, the experience of art, doubting god, and even an Inuit sea goddess, at the core it was the story of a daughter finding her direction, or as the reviews say, 'the unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and erotic exists'.
I found it mildly interesting, and at least now I know the difference between a mermaid and a siren. Not a complete winner for me - but I have no Egrets.
2005 / Hardcover / 332 pages
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