My Thoughts on The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Mermaids, Monks and Missing fingers...

You've got a woman who paints mermaids and has to go back to her childhood home to try to figure out the reasoning and psyche of a mother who just chopped off her finger in a monestary kitchen, a reluctant monk who is hiding from himself and the world, sultry southern afternoons spent in a hidden rookery, along with goddess lore and ritual. Oh, and a puzzling plot centered around a dark childhood secret...all the makings of a perfect summer read. Who could want more, right?

To be perfectly honest, I probably would have picked this book up, glanced through it and put it back on the shelf, leaving it for some other person in an the Atlanta airport (ironic since the story is set in Atlanta, I know) searching for something interesting to read...if it hadn't been for the title and the beautiful cover. I'm a sucker for packaging, such a serious character flaw.

I would have missed out.

In The Mermaid Chair, Kidd takes us on such a vivid and wondrous journey through not only the swampy tides of Egret Island, but the deep and muddled tides of the soul as well. Intertwining goddess myth and ritual with mysteries of the heart, she unveils a story of self-realization and spirit rebirth that is easily identified with.

Visually, the novel is stunning. Teaming with images of hot, sultry afternoons spent paddling a skiff in a nature preserve where glorious birds abound and insects drone. You want the images to go on and on. You want to get lost in them, especially since they are the backdrop for a secret rendezvous (and by the way, you want to get lost in that too).

One could argue that this is nothing more than a step up from a sugary Harlequin, and there are some aspects of the plot that lend themselves to a formulaic plot of internal torment and subsequent seduction. But Kidd's descriptive narratives and soul searching passages elevate the story, make it something more touching and contemplative.

Those that would argue this is simply a beach read romance clearly are missing the very heart of the themes and symbols Kidd so bewitchingly weaves in. Mermaid goddesses, enthralling water rituals, the bonds of women, strained relationships between mothers and daughters, loss of identity, death and rebirth, water and it's associated fertility...it's all in there. Throw in the mystery plot of some dark deed once committed and you have a thought provoking read.

The Mermaid Chair takes us through one woman's version of having love, finding love and reconciling extremes. She captures the feeling all so perfectly in her passage, "I slid my hand away and felt my heart go. Like fingers turning loose of the side of a boat. Dropping through layers of water." So achingly painful, so agonizingly vivid.

Your Talkback on the Cell Phone Rant

Some caller commentary I've been getting that I thought you would enjoy.


Okay, can't help you with phone drama. I HATE cell phones, wireless phones, wall phones, etc. I fell out of love with them as soon as I got over that late teen hormonal imbalance that made me actually think boys dressed in sweaty gym clothes were hot....oh, they're hot all right.....but it just makes them smell and generate laundry for someone to have to wash....someone not THEM. I remember hours of listening to Mr. I'm-Going-To-Keep-You-Forever-by-Wearing-Your-Lettermans-
Jacket-through-the-High-School-Halls just BREATHE on the phone. Now? If Randy calls me and has nothing to say, my response isn't to breathe longingly back.....it's a curt "What the Hell????? Busy here! Do you have nothing to do???? I can find some things.....stop using up your minutes and only call if you NEED something......(dammit)" That last part is usually said AS I'm hanging up the phone, in a very hateful voice.....followed by a nice "idiot" once I'm sure the phone is off. NOW.....what I DO wish you had done with this BLOG, and I hope you will do, is direct my dear daughter to your comment about the pink hair. She insisted. I let her do the ends, about 4" worth, in hot pink....last Friday. Today? Not one week later? Day-glo orange with cotton candy pink highlights......you should have helped her out instead of reading that manual.

K.E.




I too bought the RAZR, thinking cool phone (although I dumped my Startec many moons ago) and got sucked into the same marketing tornado that Mist did. Of course as a Mom, all I need it for is to keep track of the kids (who by chance only text msg or totally ignore the Mom calls). Anyway, the kiddie GPS theory is totally a smoke dream from some executive sitting in an office in prob Basking Ridge thinking "parents will love this". WELL NOT. Kids just do not pick up phones. Anyway back to the RAZR - my VCAST mobile is draining my battery to nothing while losing connections before I can even get a second of video clip or music. I thought maybe I would check the weather and after getting a connection and seeing the weather.com commentator BAMB - lost connection. So I am better off turning on Channel 2 for the latest (or looking out the window as i am often desparate). I have another 26 days to decide if I want to keep the RAZR and my vote is NO. Those cheap Motorola phones that you can drop and keep working seem to be the way to go. Mist - we need to unite and kill the RAZR.

t.




And my response...

Ahh yes, Basking Ridge, the land of Not-Quite-Right Ideas dreamed up by our valiant leaders. Being a 38 yr old kid who doesn't pick up the phone myself, I see where the concept needs tweaking. But they never listen to us anyway-no one paid attention to my Telecommuter DSL bundle product idea either...and it could bring in actual REVENUE (Staff call "r-poo", hahahha).

Anyway, as for the indestructible part, it never dawned on me that my cell phone would be a toddler's favorite action-packed toy. But we moms are not the only ones who need phones made of recycled rubber tractor tires. I stopped to chat with my neighbor yesterday morning as he was picking his cell phone up from the ground and putting the pieces back together. I asked him if his phone had been doing double duty as an air hammer (he owns a consrtuction biz). Of course, this set him off on his own cell phone rant about having to buy 5 of the stupid things in the last year.

We're such easy marks for a cool ad blitz.

Oh, and since I ordered mine from the VZ eweb...I don't have your 30 day return luxury. I can hear them somewhere in VZ Wireless chanting "haha, you're stuck with us, you're stuck with us, nanny nanny boo boo".