Mermaid_ A Twist on the Classic Tale - Carolyn Turgeon [99]
Now, many centuries after those days when the mermaid came to earth and then left it, after so many daughters and sons have been born, there are people all over the world who carry the mermaid inside them, that otherworldly beauty and longing and desire that made her reach for heaven when she lived in the darkness of the sea.
Acknowledgments
I WOULD LIKE to express my endless love and devotion to those who helped me create this book: Catherine Cobain, who bought a book about a mermaid from a list of ideas and thereby rudely forced me to write one; Elaine Markson and Gary Johnson, who helped so much in the conception of what this book would be and who pointed to the princess as a character worth exploring; Heather Lazare, who then bought that idea and (patiently and thoughtfully) helped me bring it to life; and Charlotte Mendelson, who (also patiently and thoughtfully) worked her magic from across the ocean; my friends Massie Jones and Rob Horning, who helped me brainstorm about long-ago wars and rival kingdoms, and Rob also for not only reading drafts of this book but also not minding too much when said drafts were still being created on train rides through Austria and the Czech Republic; my friends Mary McMyne, Joi Brozek, and Eric Schnall, without whose wondrous and constant input I might possibly die, or at least weep in a wistfully attractive fashion; and my friend Jeanine Cummins, who insisted that the mermaid be half the voice of this book and gave so much general input that really, if you don’t totally love Mermaid it is probably her fault.
Thank you to my mother, Jean, father, Alfred, and sister, Catherine. They are not only tremendously supportive but fantastic editors and writers, which is very convenient.
Thank you to Two Alices and the Grail in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, and to Al-Hamra in Berlin, Germany, since I wrote most of this book at and in them.
Thank you to everyone at Three Rivers Press and at Headline.
And thank you to Mr. Hans Christian Andersen, for being so inimitable, so wonderful, and so totally, gorgeously weird.
Reader’s Guide
1. Mermaid is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Have you read the story? Have you seen the Disney film? What are some of the differences and silmilarities between the other versions and this one?
2. What do you think of retellings of fairy tales? How do you account for their popularity? Do you think there’s any special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way?
3. How would you describe the mermaid world in this book? Is this an attractive world to you? Why or why not? How does it compare to the human world in the book?
4. What does Lenia find so compelling about the human world? Does she have an accurate view of it?
5. Think about Lenia’s choice to return to the sea witch and trade her voice for legs. Would you ever make such a sacrifice—for love, for salvation, or for any other reason? Why or why not? Talk about the theme of sacrifice in the book. Who is making sacrifices and for what purposes?
6. Compare Lenia and Margrethe. What do they have in common, and how are they different? What do you think about the relationship that develops between them?
7. How would you characterize Margrethe and the choices she makes? Does she change throughout the book?
8. If you could switch places with Lenia or Margrethe, whose life and world would you rather inhabit for a day, and why?
9. Describe Prince Christopher’s relationships with Lenia and Margrethe. Does he behave honorably toward them both? What do you think of him?
10. Mermaids are an incredibly popular subject in many cultures. What do you think accounts for their appeal? What makes mermaids such a rich subject for the imagination? Can you think of other books in which mermaids play an important role?