The Mermaid's Chair
By: Sue Monk Kidd

I am a great fan of this American author, having so enjoyed her first book "The Secret Life of Bees". The Mermaid's Chair is her second book.
I enjoyed the story of a wife finding her true self after 20 odd years of marriage. The story takes place in the deep lowlands south of American. While caring for her mother, and learning of the secret family history shared by many on the small island where she grew up, our heroine rebuilds a lost relationship with her mother, as well as herself. This is truly a Woman's story, aspects of which we can all relate to: empty nest, mother daughter relationships and the changes that occur with age both in our marriages and outside of them.
I felt that the story fell short of the promise of greatness in her first work.
What I did like was the setting and atmosphere aspects. These are truly foreign and completly unknown to me so I cannot vouch for how authenticly they have been depicted, this does not take away the feeling of being transported. It is this aspect of reading that I feel we all seek.