"The Mermaids Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd
Posted by Max Dunn Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:39:00 GMT
When I was working, I would try not to start a new book. The problem was that if I found a really good book, I would have a hard time putting it down and would sneak out and read the book during my work hours. Once when I was working as a summer intern at Hughes Aircraft, I was so caught up in a book and continued reading at my cubicle after my lunch hour. At one point, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my boss came in and saw me reading. He didn’t say anything, but they didn’t offer to put me on leave when I went back to school, which I guessed was because of that book.
Lately however, I haven’t found any books all that engrossing. I did read The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman in a little over a day, but that was basically showing off since the book is over 500 pages and I was determined to speed-read through it quickly. It wasn’t until I The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd caught my eye that I found another book that was truly engrossing.
Earlier, I had read The Secret Life Of Bees by Kidd and enjoyed it. Actually, I didn’t really “read” this book; I listened to it as an audio book. Hearing a book gives it a completely different perspective and can be very enjoyable, especially if the reader is good. And in “The Secret Life of Bees”, the reader was excellent and really made the book come alive.
The problem with audio books is that you can’t go back and re-read a particularly apt or interesting phrase. You get it once and – whoosh – it goes right past you. In a book, you can savor the language and study it and re-read it, which was great for “The Mermaid Chair” because the writing was often very descriptive and intriguing. For instance, here are some phrases I liked:
- I lived molded to the smallest space possible
- the years between us seemed accumulated everywhere
- the truth flying towards him with the speed of an arrow
- the pull that must happen inside the egrets when the moon rises in the early dark – that unbearable tug home
- sensing the tremor of some quiet new rhythm wanting to establish itself
- forgiveness meted out in these precious sips
This might not be be Keats, but try to find anything similar in Ludlum!
SPOILER ALERT
In reality, this is a chick book. It centers on a women who is dissatisfied with her comfortable married life and when her mother chops off her finger, goes back to her childhood home, falls in love with a priest, learns the secret of her dad’s death, and then eventually re-unites with her husband. But I am not ashamed to say that I really liked this book. Maybe I would have felt differently if she ended up running off with the priest, and that would have been too painful and ending for me. Another aspect I liked is that the style of the book is that of an epic: journey, resolution and return. Definitely a thumbs up.