Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel “The Secret Lives of Bees” left its mark on the best-seller list for several weeks, and her long-awaited new novel, “The Mermaid Chair,” is likely to enjoy fame as well. We know we’re dealing with great writing from the first sentence: “In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh’s wife and Dee’s mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine Monk.”
“The Mermaid Chair” is similar in its mysticism and spiritual aspects to her last novel. Jessie Sullivan, a 43-year-old homemaker and part-time artist from Atlanta, goes to Egret Island, an island just off South Carolina’s coast, to take care of her mother – who has recently, and intentionally, chopped off one of her fingers with a meat cleaver.
Grudgingly, Jessie goes home, where resentment, guilt and memories of a traumatized and confusing childhood lurk. Egret Island has unique characters, such as Hepzibah, a chronicler of slave history, Kat and her psychic daughter, Benne, and, of course, the monks. Her mother’s friends are of the “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” variety – they celebrate their womanhood with strange rituals – something that seems to be popular for Southern women in fiction.
On the ferry to the island, Jessie contemplates what is ahead of her in addition to her mother’s problems. She must also come to terms with her father’s death, the estranged relationship she has with her mom, and the childhood memories that flit through her mind. What she doesn’t expect is the Benedictine monk.
The affair Jessie starts is really a search for some part of her that has been lost. Bored with her seemingly perfect husband and suffering from empty-nest syndrome, she does what many women do in midlife – find out who they were before they became a wife and mother.
Jessie finds answers with the most recent addition to the local monastery, Brother Thomas. He’s tan and chiseled with a tempting smile and a face that’s “filled with what looked exactly like pleasure.” Not only is he handsome, but he is also doubting his creator and hesitant of committing to his final vows of celibacy, a perfect challenge for a woman who describes her marriage as one with “all the hunt and surprise drained out of it.”
Brother Thomas finds it all too easy to give up his godly pursuits for carnal ones. The former lawyer and widower ended up at the monastery in the first place when he lost his wife and unborn baby unexpectedly. Most days he spends his hours observing the rookery, a breeding ground for birds, and looking for answers that just cannot be found. His faith as murky as the waters he canoes in, he finds solace with Jessie.
Though they both swear they have fallen in love, it’s not believable. The lust is obvious, but love seems a stretch. We are willing to go along with their love story, though, since midlife crises aren’t exactly famed for rationality.
Jessie’s focus soon shifts from helping her mother to helping herself. Her mother has not healed at all and has instead chopped off another finger. Jessie believes these dismembered fingers are an offering to Egret Island’s saint, Senara, fabled as a mermaid turned saint. The mermaid was notorious for her clandestine visits to the monastery until her tail was taken away. Her seat, the Mermaid’s Chair, is a permanent fixture in the monastery and a big part of the island’s mystique.
Egret Island formed Jessie as a child and now remolds her as an adult – a complete cycle of growth and healing. Like the mermaid pictures she paints, she delves into the deep and finds passion in unlikely places.
Kidd is a writer who could make a shopping list sound fun. Her imagination, originality and command of language never cease. She is simply a profound storyteller.
Renée Warner is a freelance writer in Atlanta.
