Well, once again Mary Gordon is back, with another long, slow, soggy novel of Catholic guilt, cheap man-bashing feminism, and crude shanty Irish bigotry and self-pity. This time the plot is quite bizarre -- a spoiled Manhattan princess jets to Ireland and chains herself to the American embassy to illustrate her horror at man's inhumanity to man. Specifically she seems to be all choked up about some Irish boy who washed out of the IRA or something. Funny how the princess had to fly all the way to Ireland to find doomed, broken boys to feel sorry for. I hear the prisons in America are full of boys, most of them black or brown. But I suppose a "liberal" Irish Catholic like Mary Gordon doesn't see black boys in prison as having the same allure as Bobby Sands or Wolfe Tone or Patrick Sarsfield or Mary McCarthy or Studs Lonigan!This book is not only melodramatic and overwrought, (yes, Mary, I said "overwrought") it is screamingly funny in all the wrong places. For example, Pearl's mother Maria is supposed to have been a hippy yippie student radical back in the Sixties. And there is a long (some would say endless) passage at the beginning describing the feverish uncertainty and the horror, the horror, of living through those days as an angry young college girl. (Was it really that much worse than combat in Vietnam, Mary?) And of course we all know hippies really "dig" that crazy rock and roll music, so Mary keeps quoting lyrics from -- from -- wait for it -- wait for it -- "Feeling Groovy (The 59th Street Bridge Song)" by Simon and Garfunkel.Now call me crazy, but I don't think the really mean, hardcore, bomb throwing SDS type radicals on campus had much time for Simon and Garfunkel. I think Mary Gordon is laughably out of touch, and that it renders the entire hippy section unbelievable and unreadable. Some more believable hippy tunes for the gang:"Wooden Ships" by Crosby Stills, Nash and Young"Going Home" by Alvin Lee and Ten Years After"Going Up The Country" by Canned Heat"For What It's Worth" by the Buffalo Springfield"Feel Like I'm Fixin To Die Rag" by Country Joe and The Fish.Note well that I was born in 1963, and I have a better idea of good Sixties rock and roll than Mary Gordon. What was this woman really doing all through the Sixties? Sitting in a dark room, saying the rosary with the shades drawn? She sure writes like it!This is more than just a matter of baby-boomer nostalgia. As a sweaty, desperate social climber from Queens, Mary puts an awful lot of emphasis on the value of "good taste." She claims that one way Pearl can tell that Bobby Sands is not a real martyr is that he writes lousy poetry. (Try that one for logic!) But it therefore follows, using this same logic, that hippies who listen to "Feeling Groovy" instead of "Wooden Ships" are fake hippies, not the real thing. It's a matter of taste, and the irony is that poor, mean, stuck up snob Mary Gordon really has no taste when it comes to rock and roll music. No taste at all.By the way -- in 1863 there was a major race riot in New York City. A certain portion of the rioters were Irish-Americans. Most of the victims were black. If Mary Gordon is really interested in the "will to harm" maybe she could write about that.Or maybe not.
"Pearl" was not a happy book, it is full of struggles...modern day struggles of religon, beliefs, politics, sacrifice, martyrdom, and family bonds, particularly mother-daughter relationships...but I loved the 3rd person omniscent narative. I feel like the narrator was part of the story, perhaps the voice of god, or someone once involved in the story but had passed like Maria's father, Pearl's father, devorah, or the boy who pearl's death will "witness". For me personally, the story highlighted my own struggles with being a mother and acceptance of my own mother. I can relate to wanting "the best" for your child, but your idea of what's best might not actually be what is best for your child. And when you are the child in question, feeling like your parent does try not understand you...This books helps me to realize it is helpful to take a step back and accept your family members for who they are. And...I am once again embarrassed of my lack of awareness of the political unrest in Ireland during my own lifetime.I loved this book, it was a more difficult read but extremely worth the time.
What do You think about Pearl (2006)?
There are stories that help you for personal reasons. This is one of them. It contains the following sentence which I keep with me at all times: "Blame is solid platform we can stand on, a still place in the whirlwind. It tells us: this happened because of that; it could have been avoided. Whereas the unbearable possibility is that nothing can be avoided, the wind bloweth where it listeth and becomes a whirlwind that takes everything up: indiscriminate, violent, incapable of turning or slowing down because of any human word."
—Christopher Russell
My feelings about this book are hard to describe. I found it a difficult book to finish. I wanted to like it, but it took until at least 1/2 way through the book to even care about a single one of the main characters. One of the reviews says that Gordon's writing is poetic. Perhaps it is too poetic for me. There were so many times when I found myself wanting to scream, "Just get to the point! What happened next?" Gordon lets us in on every little (and grand) thought that each character has. There were times when I really didn't care.In the end, I was glad that I forced myself to finish the book. It made me think about topics I don't often explore. It did offer an opportunity to explore The Troubles of Ireland and how they might have affected people. It did make me think about the value of a human life, the influence we each have on one another without realizing, and just how nutty people can be. However, had I known what it was going to be like, I wouldn't have started it. For my tastes, more than a whee bit too much navel gazing.I'm sure there are those people who are moved to tears by Pearl. I was just glad to have made it to the end.
—Leah
Reconciliation. Forgiveness. Undestanding.This book addresses all three. I feel certain the author's expected audience is female but the themes are far from gender specific. A rebellious girl of the 60's is estranged from her father, gives birth to an illegitmate daughter who grows up to resemble the mother and ends up trying to martyr herself in Ireland. As I was reading, I grew fearful the author would ruin a good story with a bad ending. But the ending fitted the story, all too rare, it seems. I really liked the way the author drew herself away from the book and directly addressed the reader. I also liked the way the story moved back and forth from the past to the future. Can't wait to read another by this author.
—Geo Forman
