Pearl: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Mary Gordon (Author)
Key Phrases: Miss Alice, Hazel Morrisey, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Without preamble, Mary Gordon takes the reader straight to the heart of the matter in Pearl. On Christmas night, in 1998, Maria Meyers gets a call from the State Department. Maria, a New York liberal, keeps the illusion of control of her surroundings, and the news she gets is confusing, annoying, and frightening. Confusing because she doesn't understand why Pearl, 20 years old and Maria's only child, has done what she has done, annoying because there has been no forewarning, and frightening because Pearl might die. Maria is definitely not in control here, a condition that makes her vastly uncomfortable. The caller tells Maria that Pearl has chained herself to the flagpole at the American Embassy in Dublin, where she has gone to study the Irish language. Her action is the culmination of six weeks of starvation. She is very ill, dehydrated, and near death. She has left three letters on the sidewalk: one meant for the media, one for her mother, and one for their dearest and oldest family friend, Joseph Kasperman.

The media letter says "...I am giving my life in witness to the death of Stephen Donegan and to the goodness and importance of his life. Second, to show my support, my admiration for the Peace Agreement, and those who have worked toward it. Third, to mark the human will to harm." Pearl believes that, due to a careless remark said in anger, she is responsible for Stephen's death. She has been consorting with members of the Real IRA, those hardliners who will make no accommodation to stop the violence. Pearl breaks with them over an act which places Stephen, a hapless, slow-witted boy, in the hands of the law. Her primary philosophical concern is her conviction that the "human will to harm," is pernicious and pervasive. She wants to opt out of any further possibility of harming anyone.

On this convoluted thread, Mary Gordon marches forward with a stunning exploration of revisited themes, such as Catholic-Jewish heritage, trouble with fathers, and the nature of personal responsibility. A stylistic note: Gordon employs an omniscient narrator to make comments, in the nature of "Gentle Reader" asides. It is sometimes irritating, but a small price to pay for Gordon's careful deconstruction of everyone's thoughts and actions as Maria and Joseph arrive in Dublin, where Maria confronts Mick, the American angel of the Real IRA, Finbar, Pearl's lover, and Pearl's doctors. She is used to directing traffic and is thwarted on all sides by people whose agendas are vastly different from hers. Joseph is a shadowy figure, more acted upon than acting, and when he does decide to stand up he makes a ludicrous error. Gordon has forged an entirely satisfactory and plausible ending for a precarious set of circumstances. The book is thought-provoking, asking and inspiring the reader to take a position on issues as old as time and as new as the headlines. --Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly
Gordon's latest novel opens in medias res on Christmas night in New York City with a phone call from the State Department. Maria Meyers's 20-year-old daughter, Pearl, supposedly studying linguistics for a year in Ireland, has chained herself to a flagpole outside the American embassy in Dublin. For reasons that are unclear, she has starved herself for six weeks and is now in serious danger of dying from dehydration. Without understanding Pearl's motivation for the hunger strike, Maria must try and save her daughter's life. Readers of Gordon's fiction (Spending; The Company of Women) and memoir (The Shadow Man) will recognize familiar themes in her latest book: Maria is a single mother raised as a Catholic by her converted Jewish father; she comes of age in the 1960s and trades her religion for that era's brand of critical thinking. Now, with her daughter dying, Maria must re-examine her faith, her parenting and her political ideals. Told by an unidentified first-person narrator, the story unfolds over the course of a few days. Even as the life-or-death crisis comes to a head, Maria and her best friend, Joseph, are busy tackling God, sacrifice, female autonomy and the meaning of happiness. The novel's conceit provides plenty of opportunities for philosophical musing, but given this set of morose and mostly unlikable characters, the relentless self-examination grows tedious.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (January 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037542315X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375423154
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #576,088 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mature Mary Gordon, April 10, 2005

By	M. C. Finan (La Mirada, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The plot of Mary Gordon's new book "Pearl" is eerily familiar. Like Carol Shields' "Unless" a mother's daughter is immolating herself. "Pearl" is in Dublin chained to a flagpole at the American embassy. And there you have the entire plot. Mary Gordon explores three characters, the mother, the daughter and the uncle-like figure who has been visiting in Rome when he finds out about Pearl's intended sacrifice.
This book is really an extended development of the main characters, their lives, their loves, their fears. I realized about half way through the book that I was still finding out about each of the characters and I was being gently surprised with each discovery. Resonances of Irish fatalism, sacrifice and Catholicism, faith and Judaism sound throughout the book.
However, this is not a religious book, it is a human book. I have read each book of Mary Gordon's and this is by far her most mature and deepest work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging read with a crisp plot & believeable characters, February 20, 2005

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

Honore de Balzac wrote, "A mother who is really a mother is never free." It is true that the maternal bond may be one of the strongest forces in the universe. A mother's heart is always with her child, even when --- or perhaps especially when --- that child is far away. And a grown child is no exception. So what happens in a mother's heart and mind when she learns that her child is far away and in danger? What if the danger is self-inflicted?

These questions take center stage in Mary Gordon's latest novel, PEARL. Single mother Maria Meyers is celebrating a quiet Christmas in New York when she finds out that her twenty-year-old daughter Pearl, who is attending school in Ireland, has chained herself to the American Embassy in Dublin and has not eaten for six weeks. Pearl has written a statement saying that her death by starvation is meant to mark the death of a young man who recently has been killed. Even more than that, Pearl's actions are meant to witness the "will to harm" she finds in humanity.

Maria is unaware of Pearl's connection to the boy and is confused and saddened to learn that Pearl feels in some way responsible for his death. She feels helpless and alone knowing that her daughter is so far away and in so much pain. On the flight to Dublin, Maria tries to remain calm but is struggling to keep her feelings in check as she rushes to rescue Pearl. Also making the painful journey to help Pearl is Joseph Kasperman, who Maria grew up with and who Pearl has trusted and loved all her life. As the two travel to Dublin, readers learn all about their complicated relationship, Pearl's childhood, and the events that drove her to desperate measures.

Gordon's prose is amazing; heartfelt and honest but not sappy, and emotional without being overwrought. There are so many themes present in the book: family relationships, the struggle for political and civil freedom, individual responsibility, and the question of human nature. Still, the story is never muddled; Gordon does a commendable job of keeping the plot crisp, the characters true and believable, and the reader interested. It is only with Joseph's thread of the story that the novel drags ever so slightly.

Pearl's suicide attempt is about politics but it is mostly about witnessing --- not just the life and death of one individual who has died senselessly, but also the lives and deaths of so many who have, and do, all the time. It is also about Pearl trying to find a voice and identity in what feels to her like a chaotic and troubled world. Because she doesn't think that her voice is loud enough or strong enough to make a difference, she believes that her body will make a bigger statement.

Her act of sacrifice forces Maria and Joseph to assess their lives and their relationship to each other and to Pearl as they reach out to try and save her from a burden they do not understand.

Maria is a fierce character; she's protective of her daughter yet blind to her daughter's real needs. In her Gordon has created an interesting, not always likeable but quite understandable, character. Pearl is very compelling and Gordon writes her story with sympathy, thoughtfulness and wisdom. Gordon's narrative style is quite unique --- an omniscient and personal, unnamed narrator who shares with readers a concern for the characters.

In the end, neither Pearl, who had wanted to be, nor Maria, who had hoped never to be, are free from each other and their complicated, realistically portrayed relationship. The final chapter, almost hidden in the hardback edition, finds them together, trying to heal and understand each other. Gordon writes, "We will hope for the best."

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Pearl" of a novel, August 3, 2005

By	Janis Mayrick "bookaphile" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I read the reviews on line, I was amazed at the range, from 1 star to 5. I feel those that gave this wonderful, engrossing novel only 1 star just didn't get it. Mary Gordon, I believe, is not trying to tell a universal tale, although horrors occur all over the world. What she has written is a deeply personal, heartfelt novel of three people whose lives are intertwined against the background of the political situation in Ireland. Her exquisite writing and precisely drawn characters hook you from the first page. Kudos to Mary Gordon!