Rating: 
Summary: Hmm?
Review: I was at first surprised when I received this very unexpected gift. I read the back cover and began to think that I wasn't sure this was 'my kinda book'! And just because Oprah recommended it - doesn't mean that it's something that is necessarily targeted to African-American readers. I tried reading it and had to put it down after one chapter. I had to get back in the "reading mode" - so I read a Jackie Collins novel, and I read 2 books by Sandra Kitt. Now I'm officially in "reading mode" and I can't seem to put "Mother of Pearl" down. I'm not yet finished - but I keep encouraging a friend (who also put her's down after the first chapter) to pick her book up and read it. It really does get better as you go along and I found myself really wanting to know what could possibly happen next. The characters are so, um "deep" - makes you wonder if this was someones memoir from way back when. For a first timer, I would have to say Ms. Haynes did a good job. This seems like one of those books that I would have read as an English Major in school.
Rating: 
Summary: Challenging
Review: This book was a challenge to read. Haynes distinctive way of developing her characters and her long and expressive prose made me want to stop reading and move on to something that was more leisure in style. But I kept on reading. I found the book complex and thought provoking. Not only did I care about the characters but I wanted to know them and understand them in depth - to examine how many of their sides were firing (feelings, sensing, knowing, seeing, hearing and smelling - six sided women). I kept thinking of the dream of the pig and how it revealed itself to Canaan. Ripped down the middle with no insides - like Canaan racially split, a product of the time, and operating at a head level (one sideded). Most of his sides frozen and it was only when he met Grace did he begin to integrate - to make the longest trip in the world - the 18" from his head to his heart. I finally understood as I kept reading and rereading trying desperately to follow the story and clearly understand each page that the real message for me was not to figure out what Haynes was trying to convey but to understand what the personal message was for me. Reading fiction should be a personal experience - my personal experience. There is not just one message here. Just as in my own personal life so many people, events, and things don't make sense. I often struggle to analyze and reanzlye . I become frustrated, angry and end up giving away my finite life energy to something outside of myself - something that I have no control over. There is a line from the Desiderta which says "no matter whether or not it is clear to you the Universe is unfolding as it should." So in conclusion the book's message to me was: •detach, step back and allow the flow to happen; •observe; •identify which sides are firing or misfiring as the case may be; •identify when I have been in a similar situation (s),how do I misfire? • how do I want to do it differently? • Learn, grown and move on.
Rating: 
Summary: Like crawling through thick, Southern, SLUDGE
Review: I was excited about this book when I bought it. I opened it up to the first page, read it, stopped, and read it again. I was confused. I'm an English graduate student. I should be able to understand it on the first try, right? Little did I know I would start a whole novel of reading a bit, stopping, going back and reading the same bit again. Ms. Haynes, while ambitious, is a little too concerned with showing off how many words she can fit into a sentence and leaves the plot, and characters, secondary. Truth is, I gave the book to my boyfriend when he was suffering from insomnia and he said it worked like a charm. The REAL award should go to the person who wrote the synopsis on the back cover. Bravo!! Way to rope a reader in!!
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Summary: oil of olay *did* exist in the 1950's...
Review: contrary to one negative reviewer's claim, and in case anyone is interested. It was invented in South Africa in 1946, and was originally used to treat the skin of soldiers burned in WWII. That said, I'm truly confused by the negative comments made about this beautiful novel. It's one thing to find a book "boring" if the language is more difficult than one prefers (admittedly, this may not be beach-blanket reading), or to dislike characters for whatever personal reasons. It's another thing altogether to accuse the author of creating "unbelievable" characters, and to make that accusation a part of public review(why is it so unbelievable that this black character would quote Homer?), or to accuse an author of being "pretentious" if she writes difficult prose. This novel is so beautifully written that it aches with that beauty; it's just that exquisite. Among my favorite authors, are Barbara Kingsolver; Toni Morrison; Gloria Naylor. Among my favorite novels, _The Poisonwood Bible_; _Beloved_; _Jazz_; _Mama Day_; _Ahab's Wife_ (Sena Jeter Naslund). If your tastes run similar to mine, give this novel a read -- it's lovely and complex, and as clear as a moonlit night in a deep woods.
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Summary: Entertaining look at 1950's Mississippi
Review: In 1956 Petal, Mississippi, Black Even Grade and local seer Joody Two Sun become lovers. Not long after that Even meets teenage white girl Valuable Korner, whose mother is the town hooker. Though he loves the weird Joody, Even understands Valuable's need of family as he himself was abandoned by his mother almost three decades ago. Meanwhile, Valuable falls in love with her neighbor Jackson McLain. However, when Valuable becomes pregnant, Jackson flees town. Still, she dreams of taking care of her "Pearl" as she calls her unborn child. However, the young girl knows her family will provide no help. She turns to Joody and Valuable to help her through her pregnancy. MOTHER OF PEARL provides readers with a taste of small town Mississipi in the early stages of the Civil Rights movement. None of the characters seem to permanently hook the reader as much as the setting does. However, what Melinda Haynes does do is imbue her characters with human flaws and attributes that change as they do. Thouh the varying misfortunes of each of the ensemble cast overwhelms the audience at times, readers will know wht this novel is a selection of Oprah's Book Club. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Feel like I wasted my time.
Review: I should have given up on this book early on but I stubbornly stuck with it. The story did get a little better...but I still feel as though I wasted my time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book You Remember
Review: This is a book that you will not forget. Mother of Pearl is an amazing novel that shows the differences in society circles in the south (racism and prejudice). The book is set in Petal, Mississippi. 14 year old white Valuable lives with her grandmother and has one true friend, Jackson. Valuable was abandoned as a baby by her town [prostitute] mother. For a while the book seperates the stories of Valuable and a young black man named Even (who was orphaned as a baby) and brings their paths together in the middle of the book through Joody. Joody is considered the town's crazy woman (voodoo witch). Valuable goes to Joody to try and find out about herself. Even falls in love with Joody. When Valuable's grandmother dies her mother comes back and makes her life miserable. Valuable falls in love with Jackson (who we find out is her half-brother, but neither Valuable or Jackson know their father is the same man). Valuable becomes pregnant and Jackson's family moves him far away. Valuable has no contact with him and can't tell him that she's pregnant. Valuable comes to love and depend on her gay aunt, Even, Joody, Grace, and Jackson's best friend. During the birth Valuable has complications and dies. Even takes the baby as his own to raise because he can't make the baby an orphan, because of his own past. Jackson learns that Valuable is dead when he returns to see her with flowers in hand only to be forced to read her tombstone. This book shows that love and friendship really do conquer all. This is an unforgetable read.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Masterpiece
Review: MOTHER OF PEARL is a novel about the truths of life and love. Set in Petal, Mississippi in the summer of 1956, Haynes opens her story with a vague description of the initial characters, but this only draws the reader in furthur to know more. The story unfolds for 28 year old Even Grade, a black man who is an orphan in need of a family. As Even finds himself falling in love with the town crazy, Joody Two Sun, 14 year old Valuable Korner is also experiencing new love in her lifelong friend Jackson McLain.
Haynes finds a way to incorporate very colorful and descriptive language into a masterpiece that comes together beautifully to create one big picture. Some think that the complexity of the language takes away from the book, but I think that it adds to the overall effect that the reader experiences when discovering this heartfelt story of two lives.
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Summary: Review for Mother of Pearl
Review: This book is a very slow read. It takes quite a while for the book to grab the reader, then its still moves pretty slowly. The books contains many stories, most seem to intertwine with each other effortlessly. However there are some chapters that should have been edited out. I wish the author would have focused on just a couple of the characters instead of making every character that was introduced into a main character. I feel since this book is called "Mother of Pearl" that it should have focused more on Val and Jackson. At the end I had more questions than answers.
Rating:
Summary: A COMMANDING READING
Review: Oprah picked it, and so do millions of others because this powerful debut novel captivates with its truth. Set in 1956 Mississippi, with a compelling narrative that reveals characters in all their frailty and glory, Mother Of Pearl synthesizes the longings and aspirations humans share. The author speaks with a compassionate voice and actor Nan Visitor performs with a commanding one, perfectly capturing the nuances of saints and sinners alike in this memorable tale of what can happen in a single year.
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