Keri's view of The Mermaids Singing

I had a completely different reaction to this book. I really liked it and found it to be quite beautiful, yet sad. I felt that the author really captured the deep feeling of each main character and I could really empathize with how and why they made the choices they did.

Cliona seemed to have had a hard life with a beloved and affectionate father, but a difficult and lonely mother who seemed to have no interest in her children or anything else. She loved Ireland, but needed more and thought that America could bring her that. She got sucked up into the drama and dysfunction of the Willoughby family and due to her love for their son, and the birth of her daughter, stayed far longer than intended. Taking the opportunity to go back to Ireland and marry Marcus was a good choice for Cliona, but quite a challenge for her daughter. Though she lived quite content and happy in Ireland she was never able to show her daughter the affection that it seems she desperately needed.

Grace was a headstrong and passionate woman from the day she was born. She needed love and attention that she sadly did not receive from her parents and mistakenly believed men could give her. It continued as a pattern throughout her life that may have "worked" for her in the short term, never fulfilled her completely. She never really understood her mother and the choices she made...sadly her mother never shared more of herself, and just as sadly Grace never asked and eventually it was much too late. Moving to Ireland was perhaps the very best and also the very worst thing that happened to her. She was very angry, very sad, and very desperate to be out on her own and so was never able to accept or believe the affection and acceptance that her new family was giving her. Even when she met and fell in love with Seamus she could never trust his love to be enough. She wanted more and felt captive on his beloved island. The birth of her daughter Grainne was a turning point, but not enough to keep her in a life she could not accept for herself. But their relationship began to provide the unconditional love and acceptance she craved. I felt so sad that she and Grainne never reconciled before her death, but felt that fear kept them from each other.

Grainne was caught in both worlds, though much of the time I don't think she realized this. She loved her mother desperately, yet was so afraid of how much her mother had changed that it kept her from being close at the end. Then the feelings of sadness, guilt, depression and anger kept her from accepting the family she was brought back into in Ireland. I get that it was kind of creepy that she was "in love" with her mother's boyfriend, but felt that it had more to do with her age and the feelings of puberty/growing womanhood and her desire to be like her mother and I was certainly glad that Stephen did not fall for her attempted seduction. I liked the slow relationship she built with Liam and think she needed him to be patient with her although that was not what she wanted. I really didn't find it weird that they made out in the hospital...it was only then that Grainne actually decided to start living and not trying to die. She made the choice to move on, the choice to finally eat food, and it was only then that she could really appreciate what Liam had to offer her and it wouldn't have been as important had he fallen for her shallow seduction at the beginning. I loved and was also saddened when she discovered the photograph of her at age 5 in her father's study and then later realized she had met him long ago. I had hope that her relationship with her father had a good beginning and would develop into the loving bond that had been there when she was a child.

I felt so sad for Seamus as I learned more about his relationship with Grace and how very much he loved her. With her death, he most certainly would never get her back. But I was reminded of the saying "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is yours forever. If it does not, it never was." He loved Grace so much, yet always knew she would leave him. I think he knew that morning when he left that she would be leaving and he allowed her freedom....heartbreaking, yet touching. I liked that they gave a sense that perhaps Seamus and Mary Louise might get together...they would never have the passionate relationshiop he had with Grace, but it would be a deep content love for each other and the island they both loved...much like Cliona and Marcus.

All in all, I liked the book a lot. I loved the beautiful descriptions of Ireland, the sea, the mermaids and wished to hear the lyrical tune of the Irish people. It was a sad book, but full of deep emotion that resonated with me. I like happily ever afters as much as anyone, but books like this with a real-life ending please me just as much. Nothing is perfect, but there is the sense that it will get better.