Mother of Pearl

Near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in the summer of 1956, a bottle breaks over the head of the elderly, scholarly Canaan Mosely.

Even Grade, an orphan, searches his heart over Joody Two Sun, his mysterious lover with nine fingers, who wears sticks in her hair to mark her years, who knows and sees things other humans can not.

Just Plain Grace Johnson tends to the frail and drooling Mary Green, who was frozen by a stroke the day her son, Joleb, was born. Valuable Korner and her best friend, Jackson, are talking in the community graveyard atop a hill.

And out on the train tracks, Burris Green is looking for the face of God in the light of an oncoming train...

All of this information can be gleamed within the first chapters, leading me to believe show more that the characters of Melinda Haynes' novel, "Mother of Pearl," are easily the strongest part of this thick book. At 445 pages, it took me around a week to finish it; while it's lengthy, Haynes' writing style is also simplistic. I never felt lost, although I do think sometimes she drags the plot and characters down with an excess of description. I prefer clean, cut-and-dry brevity, allowing my own powerful imagination to fill in the gaps, rather than having the writer lead me to visual conclusions.

However, I will say that the characters are inspiring. After reading this book, I can't seem to get them out of my head; lanky Joody, tortured Joleb. If there's one thing Haynes did masterfully in this book, it was construct those characters, give them depth and feeling. She guides the reader through snapshots of the characters' lives in each chapter of this book, and about a third of the way through it all starts to get really entertaining. Whenever I had to put the book down, I found myself wanting to return to it, worried about the characters and what might happen next.

The plot has its twists and turns, but overall this book is more about revealing the nature and history of the characters, and sending a message of the interconnectedness of all lives (especially in a small town), rather than sweeping the reader along a trail of events.

I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys novels about the complicated and beautiful situations life in a small Southern town may bring -- including love and friendship that transcend race, age, sexuality and time. The only other thing I can say about this novel is that reading fiction is a deeply personal experience, and there isn't one message alone to be gleamed from this story or its characters.

If you decide to pick up "Mother of Pearl," I hope the experience is a beautiful one for you. show less

I enjoyed this story much more than I was expecting. I was expecting (and frankly not looking forward to) one more story about growing up poor in the South (your typical Oprah fare). What I found instead were memorable characters, believable emotions, and clever prose. After reading a biography of the author, I'm even more impressed.

Supposedly similar to other southern writers, like Olive Ann Burns, I didn't find this book as engaging. Set in Mississippi, the story revolves around 28yo negro Even, 15yo Valuable the white daughter of the town whore, and new to town, Joody Two Sun, an odd "seer" camping outside of town.

I found this novel difficult to get into and a hard read overall. Mother of Pearl does offer a vivid picture of life in a small Mississippi town in the 1950s and a cast of interesting characters does propel the plot forward to a satisfying conclusion. Still, I felt the writing could have been much better and much easier to read. I was originally only going to give this book two stars, but I did like the ending enough to feel it deserved three.

Among the best first novels I have ever read. Haynes' writing reminded me at times of Toni Morrison. Highly recommended

The story begins in 1956 in a poor small farming town, Petals, Mississippi, where the author's father really was a preacher for the first seven years of her life. Although well-written for a person who did not attend college and even dropped out of high school in her eleventh year, I was really bored with the story. Normally, I'll read at least 4 books a month on these challenges, but this one took me 20 days, a couple hours here and a couple of hours there. I kept falling asleep and dreaded getting back to it. It was even an Oprah Book Club pick back in 1999. But, I felt the character's inner thoughts just went on and on and on and there was too much jumping back and forth between all the characters for me to fully appreciate them. show more OR...maybe it was the fact that I just recently read a book very similar, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and wasn't in the mood for another one of these stories. They had the same theme, racial tension in small southern town, and full of characters with oddball names and broken families.

Even Grade, a 27 year old black man having an affair with the homeless psychic woman, Joody Two Sun, living in the woods down at the river by the bridge.

Canaan, an old uneducated man who loved to read and learn and was having an affair with the widow, Grace, who was maid and caretaker for the strange, super-disfunctional and racists Green family. Joleb Green, age 16, kills his invalid mother, who Grace was caring for.

The star was Valuable Korner, the mother of the illegitimate baby boy named Pearl. She died giving birth to Pearl. Valuable lived with her whore of a mother, Enid, until she ran out on her again. Valuable was then forced to live with her two gay aunts, Neva and Bea, who didn't want nothing to do with her baby when they found out she was pregnant at age 15 by a 17 year old towns boy named Jackson, who also happened to be her half-brother.

Valuable found out that her grandfather, who had long past, was a Klu Klux Klan and hung a black man and murdered his baby boy with him, which happened to be Grace's husband and baby from way back.

After Valuable's death, a full circle was made. Pearl, although white, ended up in the arms of a black family, Even Grade and Joody Two Sun. Grace and old man Canaan married and had a daughter one year later. They would meet at the bridge so the two children, one white and one black, could play together. show less

The book started off really really slow. I almost put it down but both my mom and uncle recommended it so I powered through and glad I did .