The Mermaid Chair

The Mermaid Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd

I almost didn't read this book. Within the first few pages I discovered it seemed to be a romance novel about an affair, and that's not really my type of book. However, within the first few pages, the main character's mother deliberately cuts her finger off for no apparent reason other than being crazy, and that was intriguing enough to make me continue reading.

As it turns out, the book is about parental love, a small island community where a person can get back in touch with nature and their roots, solving a mystery, questioning religion, and finding out where you belong.

While the story was good, what really attracted me to the book was the author's descriptive writing style. I had recently read a commentary about elements that make up a good fiction novel, and one of the elements mentioned was unexpected descriptions. Here is an example: "The water was inking into purple." The author could have said the water color was changing to purple but that would be expected. The story becomes more vivid when you use an unexpected verb like "ink." Is "ink" even a verb? I don't know. The book was filled with descriptions like that and so, I felt more involved in the story than many other books I've read.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes colorful descriptions, anyone who grew up on a barrier island, and to most women. If this book were a movie it would be a chick-flick. But it would be a very good chick-flick.