The Pearl Diver [Paperback]

Jeff Talarigo (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Doubleday (2004)
• ASIN: B000L562PG
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,507,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing, April 20, 2004

By 

N. Buehler "nancybooks" (Chicago Il United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pearl Diver: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a beautiful book.
The main character, a strong young woman who is just learning the arduous trade of a Pearl Diver finds spots on her arm that can only be leprosy. She is disowned, and banished to a leprosorium. Forced to chose a new identity, as "Miss Fuji" she cares for other more severely affected patients.
The bulk of the story is told from her perspective, as she looks through objects found in the closed leprosorium.
The writing is beautiful, and instantly transports you to another world.
Every word is carefully, sparely placed.
The author's powers of description, and ability to create mood are remarkable.
Savor reading this, do not skim.
Amazing that this is a first novel!
I am recommending this to everyone I know, and plan to discuss this with my book clubs.

This book feels inspired by one of my favorite books of all time, The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars (3.5)The small dignities of a loving heart, April 21, 2004

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pearl Diver: A Novel (Hardcover)

In this quietly moving novel of a young woman's life on the leper's island of Nagashima, Talarigo speaks of horror with tenderness, of dreams interrupted, families who disown the contaminated, condemning them to a slow death in isolation. Even though a cure is found in the 1940's, the officials refuse to release those patients whose disease can be controlled, fearing a public outcry. Consequently, the lepers remain on the island, sharing their stories, skills and incredible generosity. Voiceless in a society that will not hear them; the lepers comfort each other, compassionate in a world that has none for them

The story begins on the leper's island of Nagashima in 1948, where a young woman stands at the base of the suicide cliff. There desperate bodies have cast themselves into oblivion rather than face the empty years ahead. She looks across the sea, where the pearl divers begin their daily diving adventures, a life she once shared. Her disease has not progressed; in fact, there is medication to impede the progress of the disease. Still a young woman, "Miss Fuji" has only her memories of diving, deeper and deeper into the comforting silence of the sea.

Miss Fuji gives daily massages to the other lepers, cataloging their loss of fingers and toes, the result of an absence of nerve endings, causing frequent damage to limbs. At night the patients take turns, rotating watches in their vigilance against rats that nibble at the fingers and toes of sleeping victims. The pearl diver swims in at night to surrounding islands, her secret rebellion, where children play during the day. As the years pass, and the lepers are fractionally integrated into society, Miss Fuji is tethered to the only home she has really known, tethered by her heart and her emotions. Freedom is a concept she nurtures in her soul, preserving her private dignity.

The young woman and the people she has come to know so well make a livable space where the life is unlivable, where death and decay permeate the air, poisoning hope. For all their deformities, their insides shine with a light that cannot be extinguished. In the Japanese manner, the dying create a shrine to life: asked to be complicit in horror, they find whatever small redemption is possible, forming a spiritual chain to one another.

The Pearl Diver is a small but powerful testimony to the best qualities of humankind. With the precision of a calligrapher, the author pays homage to the pearl diver and the other shadowy figures that live and die on the island. The image of the pearl diver remains, washed in the dulcet tones of the past; her interminable kindness from inside the heart of isolation suggests the true nature of humanity in adversity. Luan Gaines/2004.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical, May 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pearl Diver: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is one of the most hauntingly beautiful books I have read. Talarigo's voice is fresh, unique and with bold simple strokes creates a rich tapestry of lives with all their strengths, frailities but above all it's their basic humanity that touches one deeply. It's a sad to think that all one reader got out of the book was "It's a little gross," I wonder why they even felt compelled to write such a comment. I read the galley several months ago and could not wait for it's actual release so that I could share this novel with friends. This is the loveliest book you will read this summer and one that will stay with you for a long time.