Mermaid Memoirs

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Paperback , pages. Published February 16th by W. Norton Company first published January 20th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Mermaid , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Terrific book - but then I'm in it. To read Eileen Cronin's devastatingly human memoir is to be plunged into a seemingly bottomless well of very deep emotions: Many of the scenes here are of nightmare-level intensity, ranging from the perspectives of a mobility-limited small child wiggling at her mentally ill mother's feet, desperate for love and attention, to the buddingly lovely adolescent making out in the To read Eileen Cronin's devastatingly human memoir is to be plunged into a seemingly bottomless well of very deep emotions: Many of the scenes here are of nightmare-level intensity, ranging from the perspectives of a mobility-limited small child wiggling at her mentally ill mother's feet, desperate for love and attention, to the buddingly lovely adolescent making out in the back of a van, terrified of what her disability might mean for her future sex life, to the tried-by-fire adult constantly battling a familial judgment that any attempt to understand the source of her disability could only spring from an ill-tempered desire to stir up trouble.

Yet there's surprisingly little about pain in this jaw-dropping story of a smart, tough little girl's fighting to grow up sane -- and, at some junctures, to grow up at all -- in a family seemingly determined to ignore the facts and blame, if not actually abuse, the victim of intense denial.

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Written with engaging simplicity, this searing tale of misguided tough love and misinformed judgments relies upon vividly-drawn incidents for its effects, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. We're not told that these kids had little rational adult supervision, for instance -- we're merely given glimpses of it when the older kids habitually compete to see who can toss Mary Eileen highest in the air with their feet, immediately adjacent to a brick fireplace.

The text does not announce how insensitive Mary Eileen's teachers are; we simply see a nun bow to a stunned child, telling the girl that God has chosen her to carry the full weight of Christ's burdens. Nor are we lectured about how bullying makes children's lives miserable: If the battling boys from the Lord of the Flies had stumbled into this world, its challenges would have made them turn pale. Yet our young narrator grits her teeth, straps on her legs, and keeps soldiering on, determined that no one will see her cry. This lack of narrative judgment is refreshing in a personal memoir, which so often veer toward anecdotal-style generalizations and sweeping condemnations.

It's also refreshing to read a memoir about dealing with immense physical challenges that does not whitewash the issues or pretend that kith, kin, or even bystanders were invariably supportive of a condition not very well understood at the time. Here, the family's resentment at what they interpret as God's cruel decision to place a less-than-physically perfect child in their midst is palpable from minute to minute.

All of which is why Mermaid is one heck of a good memoir about growing up with a mentally ill parent. The denial in this household is not limited to the narrator's being born without legs from the knees down: Just leave me alone. Rarely has a scapegoat been so well-labeled, or so lastingly: She encourages it; chillingly, the nickname seems to strike her as affectionate.

That level of loyalty and blistering desire for normalcy will strike a chord with anyone who is now or ever has been an adolescent girl, I suspect. One of the many delightful surprises of this memoir is how good a coming-of-age story it is: I would love to see this book widely read by teenagers.

Fair warning to teen readers -- and, indeed, to those under 50 -- though: That's an immensely minor quibble, however, in a piece of storytelling of great overall power. Images from this book will haunt you like memories. This is an amazing book on many levels. Since I am not experienced in reviewing the books I read, I can only say what it meant to me.

I chose to read it when I noticed its overall subject, living with a disability. A few years back and turning 65, I decided I would try to write a memoir about my partially disabling condition. It was not because of a birth defect, rather a sudden occurrence when I was 21, a car crash. It seems like so much happened in so short a after that - and I remember it so This is an amazing book on many levels.

It seems like so much happened in so short a after that - and I remember it so well - but if I never write it down I would feel like it was just so much water under the bridge. It was no stretch for me to relate to the author despite our situations being completely different, right down to gender.

I was old enough at 14 or 15 to understand when thalidomide was found to cause severe birth defects, but the subject soon faded from memory. Over a half century later, reading Mermaid - A Memoir of Resilience has definitely effected me in both an emotional and a real sense. Chapter after chapter, I found the writing style so captivating that I just wanted to continue on, not having any idea how it would all turn out.

Mermaid Memoirs by M. W. Rowe

That the author so naturally weaves the many tiny details of the currency of her days into the narrative is her special gift. Yes, the desire I had to read this book was self-serving, as I hoped to learn a little that could help me write on about the changes I have experienced. The book has so much value packed into it, not the least of which is inspiration, but I thank the author because she spoke to me. View all 6 comments.

This is a tortuous book to read. The author is born disabled, lacking her forelegs and having one hand that was webbed at birth and surgically separated when she was an infant, but which she still refers to as "my claw hand. She admits to being a fiercely independent child, but it still seems like her family ostracizes and marginalizes her, This is a tortuous book to read.

She admits to being a fiercely independent child, but it still seems like her family ostracizes and marginalizes her, not for her handicap, but for her difficult personality. To me, this is an unconscionable way to treat her. She is continually asking her mother if she took Thalidomide during her pregnancy with her, and her mother angrily denies it. It's not until the very end of the book that her mother admits that she had taken it, which is long after the author has studied the effects of Thalidomide and worries whether her disability was because of that or because of a genetic deviation.

Clearly, the author is concerned about having a child herself until she finds out. The way her family, including her parents, treat her--going on vacations and not taking her--made me angry as a reader. At the same time, she seems to sabotage herself by breaking up with men who truly seem to love her and becoming what appears to be an anorexic and an alcoholic. This book is hard to follow much of the time. I was never clear on the personalities of all but two of her siblings, her eldest sister Bridget, who acts as an assistant mother, and her brother Frank, to whom she is closest and who later dies in a car accident.

The other siblings are brought up so randomly that their personalities never get distinguished from each other.

Mermaid: A Memoir of Resilience

Her mother goes into a psychotic break one of three she will have in her lifetime , and the author never tells us whether the mother was diagnosed as schizophrenic or bi-polar. The reader has to infer it's the latter by the fact that she is prescribed lithium.

She rescues a woman beset by thugs as she waits for a bus, and doesn't tell the reader that the woman was black until three pages later, because it figured in why the attackers left her alone after the author embraced her. Clare Sweeting rated it liked it Jul 13, Christina Schellenbach rated it liked it Jul 20, James marked it as to-read Apr 12, Zorra Brablecz marked it as to-read Jun 16, Sirenita marked it as to-read May 24, Alix Wade marked it as to-read Aug 05, Betty marked it as to-read Feb 28, David marked it as to-read Apr 17, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

Trivia About Mermaid Memoirs. No trivia or quizzes yet. Jude is more a mother to Macy than Sara is and loves her unconditionally. After a number of years, Sara cannot cope with Macy being almost the sole focus of Jude's life and walks out on their marriage. In hopes of containing home schooling and baby sitting costs, Jude decides to enroll her in a nearby school. This only lasts a number of months before Jude withdraws Macy because of the bullying she has to endure on a daily basis due to her deformity.

As a result, Macy spends the rest of her academic career studying from home. On a Saturday's outing to the sea, Macy places her deformed leg in the water to see what it feels like and discovers that the leg has been replaced by a mermaid's tail.

On subsequent seaside outings with her father, the two are observed by a merman who informs Jude that her place is really with the inhabitants of an underwater village and not on land. The caveat is that she can never return as the mer-folk are afraid of humans and worry that she might betray the location of their village. She loves the new-found freedom of movement but soon runs afoul of her new neighbours as they taunt and bully Macy because she once lived with humans.

Macy has now experienced rejection both on land and sea as she finds that the mer-folk are just as bad as the humans they hate and fear. Mermaid Memoirs is a wonderful story though like a diamond in the rough, it wants a bit of polishing. There are some dropped letters and words which the reader may be inclined to overlook as this book is self-published by Mr. The only really annoying bit is that he repeatedly uses the collective noun, mermaids, to refer to the villagers - both female and male. The mermen may simply take this gender reassignment as a compliment but at times it can be confusing to the reader.

Rowe is British, he naturally uses words, grammar, idioms and colloquialisms more often found on the east side of the pond which the inexperienced may find a bit off-putting. There are a number of plot-threads left hanging at the end of Mermaid Memoirs but readers need not be alarmed. Marcus Rowe plans to publish a sequel in October of this year.

More reviews of Mer-fiction may be found at The Parsons' Rant Christina Schellenbach rated it really liked it Jul 20, Clare Sweeting rated it liked it Apr 01, Mirianne rated it really liked it Aug 24, Catherine marked it as to-read Sep 05,

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