Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West

It prompted me to seek out a few more, including Mermaids in the Basement and Consuming Passions that I’ve earmarked for the Foodies Reading Challenge. I was unpacking some old boxes a few months ago and came across a couple of Lee West novels and was reminded of how much I had enjoyed them. I had a Michael Lee West binge fifteen years ago and exhausted all that she’d written – my memories were of stories set in the Deep South focused around female relationships – think Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and more recently, The Help. My pick this week is Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West. I have you because of problems in my marriage.” Continue reading → 8 Comments First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday – ‘Mermaids in the Basement’ by Michael Lee Westįirst Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday is hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea – it’s is a weekly meme where you share the first paragraph (or two) from a book you are considering reading. “Regina, I don’t have problems in my marriage because of you. And so unfolds the story of Regina’s mistakes, which demonstrate what happens when you’re forced to trade-off desire and duty. His filthy blond hair stuck up and out in thatchy spikes from heavy use of some kind of pomade, as if it were 1982, not ’92, and he wore Lennon shades with completely black lenses, as if it were outdoors, not in, and overall, in his resemblance to a Joy Division poster, he comported himself as if twenty and not, as I’d come to find out, almost forty.”īut no one had warned Regina about Brodeur’s equally charismatic and volatile wife, Martha. He wore a long duster coat, in the heat of September. “That first time seeing him, even before being sure who he was, it was already clear that his attractiveness was mixed up with a great deal of ridiculousness. Brodeur has a reputation for seducing undergraduates and his appeal is obvious to Regina – My Education begins with graduate student, Regina Gottlieb, encountering the notorious Professor Nicholas Brodeur for the first time. Spend a moment over at Goodreads and you’ll quickly discover what elements of the story I’m skimming over but I figure that if the publisher doesn’t reveal much in the blurb, then it’s not up to me to do it for them. I’m playing with emphasis in my review of Susan Choi’s latest book, My Education.