Having strong roots in the South, Southern fiction is one of my favorite genres. Kaye Gibbons’ Charms for the Easy Life is my absolute favorite book. I read my first copy so many times that it fell apart. Reading Rebecca Wells novels (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) is similar to listening to my mom tell stories about growing up in 1960s southern Louisiana. (I think they grew up in Baton Rouge at the same time.) Mary Kay Andrews writes hilarious tales based in Georgia, and Cold Sassy Tree and Leaving Cold Sassy by Olive Ann Burns are a heart-warming classics.

With those preferences in mind, I thought that I would love The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. Not so much.

I enjoyed the quirky characters. Every book about the South has quirky characters. (FYI: normal, boring people do exist in the South. Just not many of them.) The rich theme of female friendship is also authentic. However, the book seemed too shallow to be dealing with so many heavy issues. It was as though the author tried to combine the deep issues that Gibbons always masterfully tackles with the light-hearted capers of Mary Kay Andrews. Rebecca Wells is the only author that I’ve read who is capable of handling both levels of sadness and laughter.

The Mermaid Chair shares a middle-aged woman’s journey during a miserable mid-life crisis. She grew up on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina, which is extremely similar to Cumberland Island, Georgia where my family used to camp when I was growing up. Stuck and bored in her marriage as a new empty nester, Jessie is called back to the island to deal with her apparently insane mother. Her mother works as a cook in a nearby monastery, and mystical Catholicism is woven throughout the novel.

Many of Jessie’s problems stem from her father’s mysterious death when she was seven. Soon after she arrives to take care of her mother, she finds clues that the story she was told isn’t accurate. Through the process, she’s tempted to fall in love with a monk, explore her own life and depression through her artwork and work through through her mother’s mental problems.

If you want a heavy beach or gym read, I’d recommend it. If you like books that leave you unsettled and disturbed, this is also for you.