Reading Circle.co.uk
The Mermaid Chair

 


An evocative and dramatic novel told in the
voices of two narrators, in two very different times…


In 1944 Violet is imprisoned in the tower of a rambling country house by her family, her young innocent love for a local lad gone horribly wrong.

60 years later, Claudine is the property negotiator involved in handling the sale of the now derelict Whitecliff, imprisoned herself in a marriage she rushed into after her father’s death. She is at a turning point in her life when she starts to find out the truth of Violet’s story.
 
Is happiness ever possible for these two women in their separate and very different worlds?



DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Forgiveness is a recurrent theme in the novel; Claudine forgives Bob for his infidelity and Violet forgives her parents for their treatment of her. Do you think that Claudine and Violet forgive too easily?
  1. 'I know I can never measure up to your dad, Claudine. I've always known it.' Do you think that Bob's statement is true? How did Claudine's relationship with her father shape her relationship with Bob?
  1. Claudine and Bob agree to keep it a secret that they are searching for Violet's daughter. For a while they also keep the knowledge that they've found Violet from Coley. Do you think that they were / are right to do so in both instances? Is it ever right to keep a secret?
  1. On p. 473 Claudine observes that Violet and Coley 'had only a year together, less if her months of illness are subtracted, but it was a full and joyful time, and if death could be said to be happy, she had a happy death, as did he'. Could the rewards of finally being together again ever compensate for the years that they had lost?
  1. Do you think that Claudine feels guilt about the way she treated Pamela? Was Claudine right to take Pamela to court for a greater share of her father's estate?
  1. Was Eva right to abandon her children given the circumstances?
  1. Has our society changed so much that locking a young woman away would now be inconceivable?
  1. Do you think that Violet's parents ultimately regretted their decision to lock her away?