Mermaids in the Basement | 
|  | | | Title: | Mermaids in the Basement | | Author: | Michael Lee West | | Publisher: | Harper | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 01 January, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0060184051 / 9780060184056 | | List Price: | $23.95 | | You Save: | $6.46 | | Amazon Price: | $17.49 | |
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Product Description
The beloved bestselling author of Crazy Ladies returns with a funny and poignant tale that explores the complex bonds between a daughter and her father. Reeling from the loss of her mother, plagued with a bad case of writer's block (and don't even talk about that extra twenty pounds), Renata DeChavannes feels as though everything is just plain wrong. And that was before the tabloids caught her sweetheart, filmmaker Ferg Lauderdale, sharing an intimate squeeze with Hollywood's hottest young tamale. But the granddaughter of the formidable Honora DeChavannes possesses more hell than belle in her backbone—and she's about to reclaim it. Heading south to Honora's home on the Gulf Coast, Renata is determined to stop feeling like a wilted gardenia and emerge as the unstoppable kudzu her beloved grandmother proudly proclaimed she would be: "I'll just tell you, Sherman may have burned the South, but kudzu will engulf it." But for that to happen Renata's got to face some not-so-genteel ghosts from her past, discover the truth about the mother she desperately misses, and make peace with the first man who abandoned her and broke her heart—her handsome and distant father.
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Customer Reviews:
• Southern Writing At Its Best! 19 May, 2008
Ms. West never fails to make the South come alive. As other reviewers have already said, you can smell the gradenias & taste the mint juleps. Soutern stories are my favorite & Mrs. West is one of the best. I loved all the characters, even Isabella, and thought her tricks very creative. Only the South could have such eccentric characters and Mrs. West can bring them alive. I just wish Mrs West could write faster & give us more great southern stories.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A7RFDGVXDYQLJ
• Couldn't Put It Down 15 June, 2008
I love when that happens. I laughed and cried my way thru this charming book about a band of fiesty southern belles on the warpath. The plot twists and turns and will keep you guessing. This book is a sequel to Crazy Ladies and Mad Girls in Love.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASS6QTGV7CNYB
• Not What I Had Hoped For 21 August, 2008
Having grown up in the south, I always look forward to a fluffy beach read about southern women and love gone wrong. That's what I was expecting from this book. I wasn't completely disappointed, but I found the reading a little difficult and was disappointed about the resolution of some of the subplots - of which there were many!
To me, the true theme of the book is learning to love your parents in a different way after finding out that they are truly not what you have believed them to be all of your life. Renata's character is fertile ground for this kind of self-discovery and analysis, but the author doesn't focus there. We don't even get to really understand how Renata is dealing with the death of her mother - the central figure in her life. Practically nothing is written about the months between her death and the beginning of the story.
Instead the prose focuses on simply imparting the information that Renata is missing from her childhood and family/community history.
It is written entirely in the first person, but rotates between SIX central characters. I found it a bit difficult to switch from one person to another, and occasionally had to re-read paragraphs to figure out exactly which character was speaking. It changes at the beginning of most chapters. The prose is rife with name and location details that are difficult to keep straight sometimes, but you have to in order to follow the twisted tangle of familial relationships and "who's sleeping with who". Admittedly, I just didn't want to have to think that much while reading this book!
Most of it reads like a gossip column. I tried hard to love Renata's character, but the author didn't give me much to work with. Renata struck me as kind of bumbling and air-headed. All the southern stereotypes are present here and the only character that I felt had any depth was Honora. And only when she was exploring the complicated relationship she shared with her son Louie. Isabella was way over the top and in my opinion the story could have been told just as well without her.
The plot offered no real surprises and some ended abruptly and a bit contrived, kind of like, okay the book's too long, let's wrap this up quickly. The sub-plots keep popping up throughout the narrative and because they are told from different perspectives, it's hard to keep names and locations straight. And some of the time lapses seem a little odd. Shelby and Andy marry less than 2 months after meeting one another and there is nothing about their courtship or how Shelby emotionally "got to the altar". Given the context of Shelby's life at the time, I wanted to understand how she made that leap. Instead the author explains it away in a few cryptic sentences.
I would recommend this book if you can get it from your local library and have time to sit down and read it in big chunks, so you can keep track of the details.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A6QWUR97BUQEA
• Light, Fluff 12 June, 2008
I almost lost interest in this book because Renata, the main character, seemed like a spoiled little rich young adult. She believed stories that a tabloid wrote about her boyfriend (that made her seem like a gullible jerk who believes anything over her boyfriend's word). I was getting sick of her childish ranting and raving.
The story became more interesting when she began to look at her parents' past. The gossip was entertaining, but after a while it just became too much.
And, some of the sub-plots were not fully explained. I was waiting to hear the result of the adultery, affairs, or murders, but I was left dangling.
Not the best I've read, but it did have it's good points.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A40QZCBHXTGCG
• Not As Good As The Book It Rehashes 24 October, 2008
This book re-tells the story of Michael Lee West's "Mad Girls In Love." The child Renata has grown up and is seeking information about Louie and Selma, her parents. It seems odd that she doesn't remember a lot of the incidents, especially trying to drown herself in the ocean. Most of the chapters are told by a different person, and without a chapter heading, it's necessary to read a bit to find out who is speaking. If the speakers had got to the point when they were telling Renata their story it would have been more interesting. But there was too much description of the ocean, the beach, the houses, etc. over and over, and not enough story. It was just too long winded for me. "Mad Girls In Love", the other book with the same characters, was much more interesting. It moved right along and wasn't boring.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3SHHE8ZUDCMR1
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