Jessie is a fortyish woman going back to her hometown (small island) after her mother purposefully severs her finger. While she is there caring for her mother and uncovering the truth to her father's death when she was nine, Jessie falls in love (I use that term loosely) with a monk. Unfortunately for Jessie's family, she is still married to her husband Hugh.
I liked Brother Thomas the monk. He seemed genuine. I find cloistering yourself away from the world for your whole life unfathomable, so I was glad that he had reactions that I felt were normal and real. Jessies mother was intriguing. Understanding why she would cut off her own finger and what that had to do with the death of her husband so many years ago was a wonderful part of the story.
Like Sue Monk Kidd's other book The Secret Life of Bees, this had a group of women as main characters, Jessie's mother's friends. I'm not sure what really turns me off about books that are about sisterhood. Maybe because I don't have sisters myself. But I find them exclusionary and unbalanced. So that was one large part of what I didn't like about this book.
The biggest thing that I really didn't like about the book is Jessie's moaning and waahing about boredome, losing herself, and needing to rediscover herself. Of course like so many people that means leaving your life and everything important behind and having an affair. Lust somehow makes you true to yourself. In the end all she did was commit a grievous sin and tear out the hearts of loved ones, including the unassuming monk, just to discover that wasn't what she really wanted after all.
I did enjoy the journey of the book and it was an entertaining read.
Rating 3.5
Rating PG 13 sexual content and swearing
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