Published: Dec. 09, 2009
Words: 137,627 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465895745

Short description

Set against the background of the maritime and sea legends of the Great Lakes, The Old Mermaid's Tale weaves a love story of grand proportions - the story of Clair Wagner and the two men she loves: Pio, a handsome young fisherman and Baptiste, the mysterious Breton seafarer and musician she is fascinated by - that pays homage to the importance of stories in our lives.

Extended description

(Novel - 132k words. Love Story, Coming-of-Age, Historical - Paperback or eBook) In 1960 when Clair Wagner's friends are showing off their new bikinis at the local swimming hole and planning weddings, Clair is plotting her escape from her rural farm-community life. She is headed for college on the shores of Lake Erie with plans for the future and dreams of a "handsome sailor with the constellations of the Northern Seas in his eyes".

Into her life comes Pio, a beautiful Italian fisherman, who longs for a life of adventure on the Great Lakes under the aurora borealis. Clair soon meets Gary, the dashing son of a wealthy shipping magnate, who introduces her to Canal Street on the waterfront where she encounters The Old Mermaid Inn, a tavern that, as Gary tells her, "deserves its reputation".

But The Old Mermaid Inn, with its giant painting of a seductive mermaid, is home to some fascinating people including Tessie, the owner and original mermaid, and the intriguing Baptiste, a Breton.. (Read more) (Novel - 132k words. Love Story, Coming-of-Age, Historical - Paperback or eBook) In 1960 when Clair Wagner's friends are showing off their new bikinis at the local swimming hole and planning weddings, Clair is plotting her escape from her rural farm-community life. She is headed for college on the shores of Lake Erie with plans for the future and dreams of a "handsome sailor with the constellations of the Northern Seas in his eyes".

Into her life comes Pio, a beautiful Italian fisherman, who longs for a life of adventure on the Great Lakes under the aurora borealis. Clair soon meets Gary, the dashing son of a wealthy shipping magnate, who introduces her to Canal Street on the waterfront where she encounters The Old Mermaid Inn, a tavern that, as Gary tells her, "deserves its reputation".

But The Old Mermaid Inn, with its giant painting of a seductive mermaid, is home to some fascinating people including Tessie, the owner and original mermaid, and the intriguing Baptiste, a Breton mariner injured in a shipwreck, who earns his living as a musician.

With Pio, Clair discovers passion, with Gary she gains entry into the world of the commercial waterfront, and with Baptiste she discovers all-consuming love. But as her relationship with Baptiste grows she discovers he is far more complex and mysterious than she could imagine. He has secrets and his secrets will alter her life forever.

Set against the backdrop of Great Lakes shipping legends and lore, The Old Mermaid's Tale is in part a coming-of-age story, in part a history of a transformative time in America, and throughout a love story of grand proportions that pays homage to the importance of story-telling in our lives.
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Tags

romance, legends, mermaid, folklore, maritime, great lakes

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The Old Mermaid's Tale
Set against the background of the maritime and sea legends of the Great Lakes, The Old Mermaid's Tale weaves a romance - the story of Clair Wagner and the two men she loves: Pio, a handsome young fisherman and Baptiste, the mysterious Breton seafarer and musician she is fascinated by - that pays homage to the importance of stories in our lives.

Reviews

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Review by: LK Hunsaker on June 02, 2012 : (no rating)
Absolutely beautiful story of a young woman finding herself within place and within those around her. Being close to Erie myself, the setting truly grabbed me, as did the luscious description and slow-weaved prose. I almost never rate 5 stars. I'll definitely read more of Valentine's work.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Wendy Catalano on Sep. 22, 2011 :
This book has to be one of the best love story's I have ever read.
Kathleen Valentine has a magical skill of making her characters real, believable and true. Although fictional, she has the ability to make them reach out of the pages and touch us.
It was beautifully written and it reached out into the depths of my soul.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Linda Ash on March 29, 2011 :
The Old Mermaid’s Tale is the beautifully written story of a young woman whose heart and mind are continually drawn to the mysterious, fanciful, and possibly dangerous waterfront in the town near her college. On the days she visits town, she hovers at the seedy edge of its darker parts, not daring to step into that mystique, all the while yearning for it, yearning to know what life is all about in that part of town. Little does she know how closely she will become tied to it, and how it will end up shaping her own life.

This is an artfully drawn and beautifully written character-driven novel, and what characters there are! The mark of a good novel shows when all of its inhabitants feel utterly real, and there is a believable depth behind each one, and this is a good novel. Each character has his or her own history, own knowledge, and it’s easy to forget that they are all drawn by the same hand. Kathleen Valentine has crafted a story of life’s discoveries, love, loss, and redemption that is at times sensuous, at times poignant, and always satisfying.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Maureen Gill on Dec. 19, 2010 :
Kathleen Valentine’s “The Old Mermaid’s Tale” is an elegantly crafted coming of age story about the healing powers of unconditional love. It is the story of a beautiful young woman, Claire Wagner, who falls in love with the ideal of romanticized love even before she experiences love’s own joys and sorrows. Claire is first awakened to the breathtaking realities of pure sexual passion by Pio, a young Italian-American who yearns for the dangerous life of a seaman. Pio, literally, will become the first and last great passion of her life, serving as bookends to Claire’s journey of the heart. However, the crucible that transforms Claire from love-struck girl to full womanhood will not be Pio but rather her love affair with Baptiste, a mysterious and seductive Breton, a man of tragedy and well as captivating songs of love.

Claire’s pure and unselfish love for Baptiste heals his tormented soul and allows him to claim his destiny. In return, Baptiste’s age, wisdom and ability to nurture and cherish a woman will serve as that most ancient of all mariners’ navigational tools, the Northern Star. The knowledge that she is deeply loved by Baptiste creates within her an inner compass so strong that it will guide her safely home through the tumultuous seas of her own passions and doubts, delivering her into a charmed life that gives her a platform for all of her gifts, most especially her astonishing capacity to love unconditionally and with great purity of purpose. Claire and Baptiste are eternal soul mates who share a love so profound it eventually comes full circle in the fullness of time, giving harbor to others who, like Baptiste, are also in desperate need to recover from the vicissitudes of life. Such souls are in need of safe anchor as surely as any battered ship seeking port after sailing through storms able to sink whole fleets.

Claire Wagner was born into the innocence and security of an age long gone in American history; a period before Americans began to cannibalize their best and brightest through assassination in word and deed and send off to war their own progeny to be killed or damaged beyond repair in grandiose wars of no rational purpose. Like America, Claire Wagner came of age during the social chaos of the sixties. Also like America, Claire had within her the ability to love a dream and understand dreams should be preserved and that sometimes, in and of themselves, dreams alone may be enough. As a historian, I find no small measure of metaphor in the fact that Claire found a way to preserve her dreams and justify her very existence in the arms of an older, wiser man – a man who came from a culture much more experienced than her own. America has always had a hard time looking backward to history for guidance, insisting instead on making its own mistakes. Claire was smart enough to do it differently.

Valentine sets the heart and soul of “The Old Mermaid’s Tale” in a small fishing town on one of the Great Lakes, successfully using the cultural richness of the locale and its locals as the warp and woof of her great love story. The effect is mesmerizing, entertaining, and at times enlightening. This very talented author displays an in-depth understanding and compassion for the lives of the brave men and women who define their existence according to the vagaries of mighty lakes and oceans and an ever present danger that most people will never know and can hardly imagine. The story is rich in folklore and the superstitions of seamen but most compelling when it reminds us about the fragility of our existence. Clearly to Valentine and her marvelously drawn characters there are many ways a person can die but being dead to love is quite possibly a worse death than being lost at sea.

Kathleen Valentine is a very gifted writer. She captures the prosaic as well as the heavenly but it is in the heavenly – in the sheer beauty of her sometimes astonishingly lush prose – that I was swept off my feet. Every great story leaves the reader with an indelible impression or a feeling, an idea that can often be captured in an artfully chosen word or clever turn of a phrase. Some stories leave the reader “breathless,” or “stunned” or “thrilled.” Kathleen Valentine’s “The Old Mermaid’s Tale” left me feeling simply “wonderful,” as if I had been rendered nearly senseless by an over indulgence of fine chocolate, heady wine, hot therapeutic waters, and the sweet caresses of an understanding and satisfying lover.

I’m not sure what else needs to be said with the possible exception that Kathleen Valentine proves being an independent author and being an extraordinary talent are not mutually exclusive terms. Kathleen’s writing elevates the bar for all those who want to independently publish. She has also cast adrift the myth that indies are not the equal of those who are agented or traditionally published. Everyone who wants to write or loves to read can learn much from Valentine and “The Old Mermaid’s Tale.”

(Maureen Gill; author of "January Moon.")
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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