Books: Mother Of Pearl

Author: Melinda Haynes

HarperCollins $29.95

Reviewed by Jane Pharerd


If it hadn't been for the recommendation from Oprah's book club, I might not have persevered past the first two chapters of Mother Of Pearl.

Set in a small Mississippi town, Petal, in the late 50s, the novel's immersion into the black southern American racist culture of the time at first seemed too heavy going for a holiday read in New Zealand's sunshine. And the storyline seemed obscure.

But Mother of Pearl is a gem. Its characters are rich and eclectic, its narrative spiritual and emotional, its descriptions delightful.

The people of Petal are drawn to the mysterious seer Joody Two Sun, a striking, Amazon-type woman who lives in the woods. She has powers, she knows things, she can see into the past and the future.

There's Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan and becomes Joody's lover, and Canaan, Even's disgruntled neighbour. There's Valuable Korner, a white teenager who is the daughter of the town prostitute, and a string of rich characters who tumble into the story like plump raisins in a fruitcake.

It's a story of the endless search for love and a sense of belonging, of answers to life's questions, of the uncertainty of starting relationships.

And it is a story of how people, sometimes unwittingly thrown together, come to depend on each other, loosely forming a family to see each other through the bad and the good times.

And here's a useful maxim from Mother Of Pearl, borrowed from Valuable's great granddaddy who believed in eyeballin' house alterations rather than proper measuring. "Perfection's for God," he said. "The rest of us got to get along with purt' near."

* Jane Phare is an Auckland journalist.