Mother of Pearl

customer reviews

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, identity, and redemption. Mother of Pearl revolves around twenty-eight-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, the fifteen-year-old white daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Both are passionately determined to discover the precious things neither experienced as children: human connection, enduring commitment, and, above all, unconditional love. A startlingly accomplished mixture of beauty, mystery, and tragedy, Mother of Pearl marks the debut of an extraordinary literary talent.

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Book details:

Washington Square Press |
496 pages |
ISBN 9780671774677 |
June 2000

$13.95 List Price

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Praise

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“Chicago Tribune Remarkable. ”

“The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Haynes is the real thing, a true artist, a genuine writer, and, in this book at least, a genius....Her characters live (do they ever) and Mother of Pearl transports us to the wilds of a different world.... ”

“Booklist (starred review) Both richly humorous and deeply tragic, this story leaves one wiser and makes one understand something meaningful and important about life and human nature. Haynes speaks the truth in a story that is... ”

“Chicago Tribune Memorable....Less a portrait of the South in the 1950's and more a tale about how neccessity forces people to create bonds outside their own blood....Haynes works boldly with this large and eccentric cast....her... ”

“San Francisco Chronicle Book Review Like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor before her, Melinda Haynes recognizes that Southern culture has a lush affinity with the elements of classical tragedy...A pleasure to witness. ”

“Pat Conroy author of Beach Music Haynes' sentences have the beauty of coined silver forks resting on linen. Her dialogue shimmers. ”

“The New York Times Book Review Welcome to Petal, Mississippi, a real place on the map, but in Melinda Haynes' first novel, a fictional one as entangling as kudzu. In language as profuse and vigorous as that Southern vine, Haynes... ”

“Publishers Weekly (starred review) In prose both rugged and beautiful, Haynes plumbs the secrets of the South in her stunning debut novel....She is fearless in portraying her characters' flaws, their pettiness and racism, their... ”

– for language, courageous storytelling, and compassion.

“Shelby Hearon author of Owning Jolene Mother of Pearl is a monumental novel set in the noble-speaking backcountry of Faulkner's Mississippi. In a luminous voice, original and true, Melinda Haynes tells the story, straight as a tree... ”

“Booklist (starred review) Phenomenal and completely captivating. ”

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Read an Excerpt

Chapter One: Petal, Mississippi

1956

Even Grade walked past the spot on the bridge where Canaan caught the bottle with his head and saw the blood mark was still there, but just barely. The two-week bake of August sun beginning to mask its humiliation, blending the old man's emission to a color like that of rusted girder. On a day not spent dealing with death, Even would have stopped one more time to wonder over the bigger insult: that Canaan's middle-aged forehead got split by glass and bled out, or that the bottle bearing skin and blood soared over a rail and dropped into the water that he loved. Death or no,...