Forty-two-year-old Jessie Sullivan, devoted wife and mother, has
lived her life "molded to the smallest space possible, my days the
size of little beads that passed without passion through my
fingers." Married to loving if uninspiring Hugh, with a daughter in
college, Jessie is having a hard time finding passion for her
marriage or for the artistic creation that used to sustain her. An
emergency call shocks Jessie out of her routine, when she learns
that her mother, from whom she has been estranged, has harmed
herself. Jessie's mother Nelle, whose Catholic faith has bordered
on fanaticism in recent years, lives on a South Carolina barrier
island where she cooks for the community of Benedictine monks. For
reasons no one knows, Nelle has intentionally severed her own
finger.

Although Hugh, a psychiatrist, urges institutionalization for
Nelle, Jessie decides to go to the island herself, partly to help
her mother and partly just to have some time away from her life. As
she explores the island, she discovers something quite unexpected
--- her capacity to love again. The object of her affection is most
unexpected --- Brother Thomas, the youngest monk at the monastery.
Brother Thomas (whose real name is Whit) is sexy, mysterious, and a
tragic figure, who lost his wife and unborn child in an accident
years before. Struggling with questions of grief and faith, Whit,
too, recognizes in Jessie the opportunity to reignite a part of
himself that he thought he had lost forever.

Jessie struggles with her intense feelings toward Whit: "I was in
love, and not only that, but it was a Great Love, and to walk away
from it would be a denial of my life." In the meantime, her desire
for Whit reawakens her artistic passions, and she finds herself
making beautiful, symbolic paintings of the mermaids whose legends
enrich the lore of this island. She also starts to investigate her
father's mysterious death decades before, gradually fearing that
her mother's bizarre behavior stems from guilt over a terrible
secret.

Sue Monk Kidd's previous novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, has become
a book club favorite in recent years. THE MERMAID CHAIR, with its
considerations of married love versus romantic passion and its
explorations of family history and women's friendships, is bound to
be a discussion group favorite as well. Its evocative island
setting and its deeply flawed but still appealing protagonist will
draw in many readers. The novel's weakest aspect is its depiction
of the love scenes between Jessie and Whit, many of which seem
stilted and artificial, and rely too heavily on the imagery of the
birds that populate the rookery where Whit works. (As the two
observe bird mating behaviors, Jessie notes, "The truth was, I'd
been snapping my bill and elongating my neck for the last five
minutes.") Jessie's final decision also may come too quickly and
seem too forced for some readers, although many will find her
choice comforting and the message of the novel affirming.