Book 104: The Pearl

Ah, the final book, finished at about 1:00 PM on 12/31/09, is John Steinbeck's The Pearl. What a great way to end the year. Steinbeck doesn't waste a word, and even though he tells a lot (rather than showing), he does it in a way that is mostly forgivable, and he intertwines the telling and the showing together, so it doesn't seem as much like cheating.

In this novel, a villager finds an enormous, perfect pearl in the Gulf and it changes everyone's lives. "Every man suddenly became related to Kino's pearl, and Kino's pearl went into the dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers, of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man's enemy."

Read these two sentences, and see if the idea seems true: "For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have."

Well, this pearl is TOO big, and the pearl buyers try to cheat Kino. None of the villagers know how to bargain or how to go to the city to get a fair deal. But Kino will not be cheated. Someone comes in the night to try to steal the pearl. Kino's wife begs him to destroy it, to cleanse the family of its evil. But Kino has seen a future in which his son will go to school and learn to read and then they will all know the things that the Europeans know. They will know what is true.

Oh, that pearl seems to promise safety and security and never being hungry, and that is very difficult to resist.

Read this: "And the sun beat down on the streets of the city and even tiny stones threw shadows on the ground." What would you give to be able to write a sentence like that?

Here is another great tidbit from this novel: "He had said, 'I am a man,' and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god." True dat, right sisters?

The thing that makes this book really great, aside from the talented and skillful writing, is that it rings completely true. Imagine if you won the lottery, and not just enough to pay off the bills, but some insanely huge amount, like $500 million. Some amount that would absolutely destroy your current life and send you hurtling into some other existence. Everyone knows you have the money, and they all want some of it -- and not a little bit. Does a little part of you hate them for their greed? Do you question everyone's motives in hanging around you? Do you have to shut yourself away from the world for security and safety? It's easy to imagine the bad side of sudden immense wealth. Steinbeck wrote something like, when we step into the sunlight, our shadow side is revealed as well. Something like The Pearl could bring out the worst in each of us.





Woo Hoo Hoo!! I completed my challenge of reading 104 books in 2009!! I'm pretty relieved to be done.

But... I have made a new challenge for myself for 2010. I hope it will begin some time tomorrow, and I think it will be a lot of fun, even though I'm just a little terrified.

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you have fun and get home safely and get ready to start your resolutions tomorrow.