I read Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees last year and raved about it to everyone from the baggers at Publix to my cousin who reads only books with half-naked people looking windblown on the cover. When The Mermaid Chair was released I rushed out to buy it. I read the first few chapters, flung it across the room and didn’t pick it up again for several months. It kept taunting me, though, and good friend and fellow blogger had read it and recommended it highly so I figured I’d give it another shot.
The Secret Life of Bees was written in this wonderful, lyrical, southern voice. The characters became like family and when I finished reading it I missed them dreadfully.
I was looking for that kind of involvement in The Mermaid Chair but I never got it. I read a review on Amazon that compared it to Danielle Steel. I don’t think that’s fair. If a comparison were to made I would name Anne Rivers Siddons. It was a good book, not nearly great, and it left me empty. But it was well written in spots and actually did include some insights into faith and marriage and the sacrifices we will make for one we love. And that sets it above Danielle Steel. [more after the jump]
The story is about Jessie, a middle-aged woman who has hit a point in her marriage where she feels stifled and held back from being her true self. When her mother cuts off her own finger and Jessie has to stay with her on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina it gives her a necessary break from the mundane. While on the island she meets Brother Thomas, aka Whit, and they fall madly in love, meeting for secret picnics and making love in the sand. When Jessie’s mother cuts off another finger it brings the book to its climax where all mysteries are revealed and everyone ends up doing what they ought to have done in the first place.
This is not a book that leaves you with any burning questions. The characters were hollow. What made Bees so magical is that you KNEW these people and wanted to be closer to them. This book does not have that selling point.
Part of the problem is the way Kidd shifts the point of view. Most of the book is narrated by Jessie. Other sections, though, are theoretically meant to give more insight into Brother Thomas’ feelings and thoughts. One section is dedicated to the Jesse’s husband, Hugh. Why only one section? We learn nothing except for the obvious: he’s mad at Jessie for having an affair. Duh. Brother Thomas’ sections are mainly comprised of the suspicions of the other monks at the abbey on the island. He’s having an affair with a married woman and he’s afraid of being caught. Again, duh.
The part of the book that makes it worth slogging through the rest is when Jessie’s mother cuts off the second finger. That scene and the transformation she and Jessie go through while she is in the hospital and immediately upon her release are moving and beautiful. I think the image of Jessie with her head in her mother’s lap, weeping, and being stroked by a hand missing a finger will stay with me for some time.
In summary, this is a vacation read and not much more. I hope that Kidd can bring more to the table in her next novel.