Search - Mother of Pearl

Predictable and wordy. I didn't see this as insightful as others did and found it a chore to get through. Save your time, as there are better books out there on the same subject.

I want to recommend a serious novel: MOTHER OF PEARL. This was an Oprah Club book and I really enjoyed it. A bit out of normal realm for me, but I highly recommend it. The setting is small town Mississippi in the 1950's. If you are familiar with the Southern lifestyle you will get into the book right away. I have talked to others who weren't so accustomed to the way we do things "down South" and they thought the book was a little odd. (not bad-just odd) But trust me, this book rings pretty true. This is a story about judgements, persecution and prejudice. The two main characters are Even Grade, a 28 year old black man who grew up an orphan in a segregated small southern town and Valuable Korner, a fifteen year old girl, considered poor white trash, a daughter of a whore (father unknown). These two unlikely people develop a genuine friendship. The book is full of outrageous, believable characters who help these two try to create a life they never had as children. The author is Melinda Haynes. She is a great writer and this book really kept me turning pages as the mystery unfolded. Multiple plots lead up to a shattering tragedy. Great book.

This is a stunning, insightful novel about race in a small town in the 1950s, in the deep South. The characters, a 28-year-old black man and a 15-year-old white girl, will engage your attention. I found this book to be a though-provoking fiction work about love, about mystery, about race, and about tragedy. Fiction, you see, is sometimes carries far more "truth" than reality. A satisfying read.

This book takes place down south, and was an interesting book that my book club read one month, it features the growing up years of the girl "Pearl" and how she lived her life, and her many adventures.

Too long, too wordy and too much allusion and metaphor. Stereotypical characterizations abound; the sassy, ill-spoken African-American women, the butch lesbian, the flighty whore, etc.

Read it for the ending!