Saturday, March 08, 2008

Sunday Serenity #46

This Sunday, like today, is going to be dedicated to reading. I started Sue Monk Kidd's novel, The Mermaid Chair, this afternoon and am enthralled. I'm a hundred pages in. It is the first fiction I've read since Sven III began last Saturday even though I had declared my intention to make sure this time that working on my own stories did not push out all other stories.

Many writers testify to what I have also learned: that reading fiction is a necessary part of the care and feeding of the muse. So, in response to the frustration of the past week's work with my WIP, I decided to spend the weekend reading a novel while giving Ed have unfettered access to the laptop which is a major source of serenity for him.

If I finish the novel, I will probably return to Kidd's memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, which I've been meandering my way through since early December. Both are library books. I think I'm on my third check-out of this one and it is due again Thursday. As is The Mermaid's Chair which I've had checked out a least once before. At least a year ago because it was before the library closure last April.

The memoir deals with Kidd's experience of awakening spiritually and finding the patriarchal straight jacket imposed upon the Christian tradition she had dedicated her life heart and soul to was suddenly intolerable. She chronicles her years long quest to integrate honor of the feminine into her relationship to the sacred. Many of the themes of the memoir underpin the novel.

I am grateful to Bonnie Jacobs for directing me to The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. She thought it might be helpful to me because of my own experience of having jettisoned many of the doctrines of my own faith tradition while struggling to find a foothold on life as I redefined faith itself.

4 tell me a story:

Bonnie Jacobs 3/09/2008 6:12 AM  

Sorry I misled you, Joy Renee, when I asked, "Wanna know more?" on my Bonnie's Books blog. Since you DO want to know more, I'll try to write something more about my unlearning. After our discussions, you probably already know some areas of thinking that I had to unlearn, which are pretty much the same kinds of things you have been unlearning, I'm sure.

Enjoy reading The Mermaid Chair today. I can't remember ... have you already read The Secret Life of Bees? I think that book is great.

Unknown 3/09/2008 8:17 AM  

The Mermaid Chair was great.

Ed
http://edsthread.399megs.com

Ann 3/09/2008 4:45 PM  

Hope you had a nice relaxing Sunday reading. It sounds like a great book, if my to be read pile weren't already overtaking my apartment, I'd add it to the list. :)
Have a great week.

Danika Dinsmore 3/10/2008 12:44 AM  

I just read Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and loved it. My mom read Dissident Daughter and now we'll trade. If I love it, I'll have to check out Mermaid's Chair

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