The Mermaids Singing

Cliona, a traditional-minded Irish woman immigrated from Inis Murdoch to Boston, where she worked as a maid for an upper-class family. An unlikely sexual encounter leads her to become pregnant with her daughter, Grace. Grace grows up feeling that she is unwanted by her mother who she views as weak, intolerant, and subservient to others. Cliona, on the other hand, wants to protect her beautiful, strong-willed daughter from the dangers that face young girls, and wants to keep her from making the same mistakes that she made as a girl. After a disaster leads to friction with the family that Cliona works for, and a widower from Ireland offers Cliona the opportunity to return home to be the mother of his children and help him manage his inn, Cliona drags Grace back to Ireland against her will.

After several years of moping, Grace finally meets and falls in love with Seamus. The two marry and Grace gives birth to a daughter, Grainne, but can never overcome her longing to return to the United States. This homesickness culminates in a late-night escape, in which Grace flees Ireland and returns to America, denying her curious daughter any knowledge of who her father is. Grainne grows up, therefore, thinking that her father was just one of the many men who passed in and out of her father's life. However, when Grace dies of breast cancer, Cliona reemerges to bring fifteen year-old Grainne back to Ireland against her will, in the same way that she once dragged Grace back. Grainne becomes intrigued by the notion that her father, a man with whom her mother once shared a transcendant love with, is still alive and wants to see her, and tries to find him. In the meanwhile, she can only cope with the loss of her mother by starving herself and withdrawing from virtually everyone on the island.

This story could have easily degenerated into a Lifetime movie script, with its plot about three generations of women tracing their roots back to Ireland. However, Carey's lyrical, vivid prose and seemingly genuine love of her characters, makes it instead a vivid and moving portrayal of love and betrayal and loss. The story is narrated alternately by each of the three women, with Grace's story being told in third-person as her death is depicted at the beginning of the book. As another reader pointed out, sexuality is a strong theme running throughout the book as Carey compares and contrasts each woman's experience of sex. Cliona, the traditionalist, seems to view sex as a shameful act of indulgence, for which she was punished by giving birth to Grace. Grace, on the other hand is wild and free-spirited, and has passionate sex with both Michael, the son of her mother's employers, and Seamus, her husband. For her sex is both an expression of love and a pleasure in itself. Grainne, finally, feels inadequate in the shadow of her temptress mother. She experiments with boys, and, left unsatisfied is still waiting for the right one to come along with whom to "go all the way" with.

I higly recommed this book that tells a story of love and lust and loss and betrayal as these three women in their own way, gradually come to terms with one another.

...a well-considered, intelligent, if pedestrian effort.

This novel, Ms Carey's début, was published a dozen years ago. Meaning it was written probably a decade and a half ago. I'm sure her abilities as a writer have improved since then, so 'Mermaids' should be taken as nothing more than a rookie's travails...and maybe an indicator of things to come.

I read this on the heels of Haven Kimmel's oeuvre...which probably wasn't such a fair precursor. Because even just taking into account their freshman (freshperson?) offerings, it's clear that the difference between their writing is the difference between a guitar player and a guitarist. A vocalist and a singer. A cook...and a chef.

'Mermaids' is a straightforward enough story executed with dollop of ambition. Told from multiple narrators' points of view, some in flashback, set in two different countries, with Life as An Emotional Journey as the backdrop, through three generations of women.

Well, Ms Carey got the basics down right. It all adds up., the story makes sense, there aren't any disturbing missteps. But considering the premise, considering the myths invoked, considering the settings, as I previously declared, it's all ra ather pedestrian experience for the reader. There's nothing poetic involved...though there is some poetry in the text. There's no lyricism...though if you've got Ireland as a character, then you'd think you'd have some pretty lyrical stuff to draw from.

Maybe in the hands of another, a more 'writerly' writer, 'Mermaids' might have been something memorable. Something of substance. As it is, there's a lot of 'factual' exposition going on, and because of the multiple-narrator gambit, the tale told is a dry one. I didn't feel captivated by the story, or engrossed while reading it, nor did it lead me to comtemplate larger issues. It really just...sat there.

Perhaps were she to write 'The Mermaids Singing' today, Ms Carey would end up with an entirely different novel. Or, maybe she's not cut out to write the book that I felt this one could have, should have been. In any case, it's a nice enough time-waster, though nothing I'd recommend.

I loved this book. Honestly, I picked it up in some discount area and I can't imagine my life without it. Silly, maybe but true. I thought it was amazing as a teenager and saw it in a whole new light after losing my aunt to cancer. I've read it many times and I just think it's the best book. It's all about what's not said & the dangers in not speaking up, about how valuable time is and life in general.

I just love the whole thing. I loaned it out so many times, I had to buy another copy just for myself again.

We Americans love to dissect every event, every emotion, every relationship, searching for meaning, implication, and ways we "can grow."

The Irish are not so silly, at least not the Irish in this book. This is a book about forces we cannot control, forces like weather, the ocean, lust, and (perhaps the most inexplicable) family.

Moving back and forth between mega-metro Boston and ultra-isolated Inis Muruch, and telling the bittersweet story of three generations of women, this book beautifully considers the complex motivations that propel women through their lives. It is three sexy love stories woven together by the blood-love story--sometimes agonizing--between grandmother, mother, and daughter.

I particularly enjoyed the unspoken comparisons between American and Irish views on myth. We Americans want proof, proof! The Irish are much more willing to accept the possibility that myth is based in fact.

This is a highly compelling story, one I'll be thinking back on for weeks to come.

Suddenly I want to go to a beach in Ireland and listen for the mermaids. I'm just certain I'll hear them singing.

First, I'd like to say that the writing in this book was fabulous! The way the author played with chronology and point of view was interesting and well done. The language was beautiful. I think I could have really liked this book if it hadn't been for the character, Grace. I found very few redeming qualities in her. She was needlessly hateful to her mother. other than her mother being a maid for a wealthy family, I saw no reason for her to act the way she did. Toward her own daughter, she behaved very strangly. At times she is too honest with her (a conversation about her boyfriend's orgasm was particularly disturbing), and at other times she withheld information that would have been vital to her daughter's survival. The whole thing about Grace seemed implausable and contrived.

Overall, I think this book is a nice summer read, but not one I would tell people to rush out and get.

"The sins of the mothers shall be visited upon the daughters." That might be a good synopsis of this novel, told with some good lyricism and emotional insight, but structurally a bit flawed, IMHO.

The story follows three generations of Irish/American women, and their struggles with illegitimate pregnancies and raising daughters on their own. The setting, mostly on a small island off the coast of Ireland, is entrancing. Each of the women (grandmother, mother, daughter) spends part of her life in the US and part on the island. Each feels a genetic closeness with mermaids.

The main problem with the book, for me, was that the three women had such similar voices and life experiences. We have three feisty (and surprisingly lusty and promiscuous) women with a lot of resentment towards their single mothers. I had a hard time remembering whose stories were whose.

Also, there were an awful lot of references to mermaids. Okay, I got the symbolism (women who latch onto men and lure them to their death); yet it was actually the women themselves whose lives were ruined by early pregnancies. The men who fathered the children got off scot free. The mermaid thing just got tiresome after a while, since it didn't really lead to an emotional epiphany or character transformation.

People with a romantic bent for novels set in Ireland might enjoy this, however.

This book held my interest throughout the story.

Nice.

Loved this book!

Disappointing ending (hated it!), but decent story line I suppose. Kinda depressing.