[BUQ]∎ Libro Mother of Pearl Oprah Book Club Melinda Haynes 9780671774677 Books

Mother of Pearl Oprah Book Club Melinda Haynes 9780671774677 Books

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Mother of Pearl Oprah Book Club Melinda Haynes 9780671774677 Books

Mother of Pearl is a luminous novel of the 1950's South that intermingles race and racism, degeneracy and prejudice, magic and love. With characters whose names came from real estate and road signs such as Even Grade and Valuable Korner, the story races and rambles through a search for meaning, love, and family. As often happens, when someone has no real family, they satisfy their needs in unconventional ways. Here we find a girl, Valuable Korner, who is set adrift by her mother, the town hooker, who takes off for California one night never to return; Valuable goes to the only refuge available, a lesbian aunt and her companion who live in a large Victorian mansion on the river. When her boyfriend moves to Georgia with his family, she is truly cut adrift until she finds comfort and compassion with a Black conjure woman and her lover, Even Grade, an orphan who is also looking for a family. The complexity and variety of the plot moves the novel along at a rapid pace as the author reveals the pettiness and prejudice of 50's Mississippi while at the same time allowing the essential human needs to take precedence as an unusual family of mixed race begins to form. There is also a touch of the outrageous that accompanies many Southern novels and that is certainly a part of Southern culture, as well as the humor that erupts from such situations. Overall, Mother of Pearl is a thoroughly tender and heartrending story of a few individuals in troubled times who overcome their despair in ways that are unexpected and influence their lives forever.


Tags : Mother of Pearl (Oprah's Book Club) [Melinda Haynes] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Capturing all the rueful irony and racial ambivalence of small-town Mississippi in the late 1950s, Melinda Haynes' celebrated novel is a wholly unforgettable exploration of family,Melinda Haynes,Mother of Pearl (Oprah's Book Club),Washington Square Press,0671774670,Historical,African American men,African American men;Fiction.,Mississippi,Psychological fiction,Race relations,Race relations;Fiction.,Teenage girls,Teenage girls;Fiction.,FICTION General,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,FictionLiterary,General,Historical - General,Historical fiction,HistoryGeneral,MedicalGeneral,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction

Mother of Pearl Oprah Book Club Melinda Haynes 9780671774677 Books Reviews

Do not try to listen to the audio version! The narration was done by a very pleasant-sounding woman, but the author is so superfluous in her language, it's almost impossible to get into the story. I had to listen to the first 3 tracks twice to even understand what was going on because everyone's names are so unusual and there is very little early character development by way of introduction. This is the type of book that you'd really have to commit to in order to get through the whole thing.
As an avid reader and a fan of most of Oprah's Book Club selections, I have to admit that I was truly disappointed by Mother of Pearl. The characters really lacked definition and despite the various stages of turmoil each was facing in their lives, I didn't care about any of them or what happened to them. The story lines for each character seemed to go no where -- very slowly. Since the book was so long and drawn out and I didn't much care about any of the characters, I actually stopped reading the book with only about 100 pages left. I have never, ever not finished a book before, no matter how bad -- so that should give you an idea of how awful this one was. If you're looking for a good book along the lines of Oprah's usual picks, try Home is Where the Heart is by Billy Letts, Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman or Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen.
This book was a challenge to read. Haynes distinctive way of developing her characters and her long and expressive prose made me want to stop reading and move on to something that was more leisure in style. But I kept on reading. I found the book complex and thought provoking. Not only did I care about the characters but I wanted to know them and understand them in depth - to examine how many of their sides were firing (feelings, sensing, knowing, seeing, hearing and smelling - six sided women). I kept thinking of the dream of the pig and how it revealed itself to Canaan. Ripped down the middle with no insides - like Canaan racially split, a product of the time, and operating at a head level (one sideded). Most of his sides frozen and it was only when he met Grace did he begin to integrate - to make the longest trip in the world - the 18" from his head to his heart.
I finally understood as I kept reading and rereading trying desperately to follow the story and clearly understand each page that the real message for me was not to figure out what Haynes was trying to convey but to understand what the personal message was for me. Reading fiction should be a personal experience - my personal experience. There is not just one message here. Just as in my own personal life so many people, events, and things don't make sense. I often struggle to analyze and reanzlye . I become frustrated, angry and end up giving away my finite life energy to something outside of myself - something that I have no control over. There is a line from the Desiderta which says "no matter whether or not it is clear to you the Universe is unfolding as it should." So in conclusion the book's message to me was *detach, step back and allow the flow to happen; *observe; *identify which sides are firing or misfiring as the case may be; *identify when I have been in a similar situation (s),how do I misfire? * how do I want to do it differently? * Learn, grown and move on.
The book is definitely difficult to follow at first. But, like many other readers, I kept reading and came to love it. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Most of the characters were interesting and likable and seemed very real to me. The one exception being Joody. I didn't understand or like her at all but she was an important part of the story. I would have reacted to her the same way that Grace did, like she was some sort of kook. The ending seemed a bit too abrupt but all in all it was a very good read.
A real crash-and-burn novel, the characters are great but the structure is loose. Just as I wondered why Nicolas Sparks ended Message in a Bottle on such a tragic note, I find myself asking Hayne the same question. I see her attempt at restoring those with tragic pasts, but the way in which she accomplishes this just could not happen in 1956. My willing suspension of disbelief could not sustain itself in the final chapters. She covered her tracks to make the loose ends tie together, but the characters were watered-down by then. Incorrect and vague references "dentil" when referring to an architectural decoration is incorrectly spelled "dental." At the end, I had to read a paragraph three times to understand what "her" means because of an improper antecedant. Once again, I love her characters.
Mother of Pearl is a luminous novel of the 1950's South that intermingles race and racism, degeneracy and prejudice, magic and love. With characters whose names came from real estate and road signs such as Even Grade and Valuable Korner, the story races and rambles through a search for meaning, love, and family. As often happens, when someone has no real family, they satisfy their needs in unconventional ways. Here we find a girl, Valuable Korner, who is set adrift by her mother, the town hooker, who takes off for California one night never to return; Valuable goes to the only refuge available, a lesbian aunt and her companion who live in a large Victorian mansion on the river. When her boyfriend moves to Georgia with his family, she is truly cut adrift until she finds comfort and compassion with a Black conjure woman and her lover, Even Grade, an orphan who is also looking for a family. The complexity and variety of the plot moves the novel along at a rapid pace as the author reveals the pettiness and prejudice of 50's Mississippi while at the same time allowing the essential human needs to take precedence as an unusual family of mixed race begins to form. There is also a touch of the outrageous that accompanies many Southern novels and that is certainly a part of Southern culture, as well as the humor that erupts from such situations. Overall, Mother of Pearl is a thoroughly tender and heartrending story of a few individuals in troubled times who overcome their despair in ways that are unexpected and influence their lives forever.