I had a hard time getting into this book initially, but it did get better towards the end.

Though I found the writing and metaphors often overwrought, and the oversexualized subtext crudely unnecessary, the story was nevertheless compelling, partly due to the genre-bending style. I don't know what to call this - Southern-Gothic-Noir-Tragi-comedy?

Jean Caraccilo Bruce, et al. I felt exactly the same; however, I've been reading this book (on and off with others in between) since October 2016 ... . I usually have no qualms about not finishing a book and would have quit this too. I wanted to find something redeeming ... alas, I have about 20 more pages to go. I have never read a book with so many unnecessary characters, meaningless subplots, inane asides, etc etc ... all seemingly trite, going no where, without rhyme nor interest. It truly was like searching for god on the railroad tracks ... but why? (less)

Love Melinda's use of archaic language from a time long ago.

I must agree with many of the previous reviews. Haynes pulls no punches and launches her first book with a broad menagerie of characters from all walks of life during the 1950s. Unique characters with an "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" feel to it.

The tragedy and triumph of the novel's characters may be too expected, but the effort and excellence of Haynes' skills as an author are obvious.

Was captivated at first with the characters and style of writing but ???????I think what we have here is a WILLIAM FAULKNER want-ta-be. There was only one and will never be another, This book was a total waste of time.

I thought that this book was amazing. It has everything that I am looking for in a novel: a plot that doesn't go the way I would expect; interesting characters who are fully formed and really differentiated from each other; a rich sense of the time and place that the story is set in and interesting insights about social issues that makes me think about issues in a way I might not have previously.
This is Haynes first novel and I was really surprised because of the skill she displayed in creating the characters. In the interview with her that was in the back of the edition of this book I had she stated that although this was her first novel, the characters and story had been swirling around in her mind for a long time and this chance she had at rumination really shows.
The story takes place in a small town in Mississippi in the 1950s and is about a cast of several residents, black and white, as their lives bring them together and apart. It doesn't sound like much when the plot is broken down to a simple sentence but the detail that Haynes gives to her characters and their interior lives really separates it from other attempts at depicting this time and place.
One of my favorite characters is Canaan, a grumpy old man who is struggling with the mismatch between his intellect, which is taking on greek classics and creating a modern black equivalent, and his heart, which has fallen for a very capable and loving woman who has to have the love letters he sends to her read by a third party because she does not read. Canaan's struggle with the benefits and downfalls of locking yourself in an intellectual cage versus making yourself vulnerable was very touching.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in issues of race, anyone who likes southern gothic novels and anyone who is looking for something enveloping and unpredictable.

#woof what a tome. This was another in a long list of books that I was compelled to add to my “Want To Read” list a couple of years ago which I can’t for the life of me figure out/understand. Like, Oprah’s Book Club? Typically, these are three words that would send me in the other direction if only because I often find the books she likes to be overtly preachy, or fanatical, or over-the-top emotional and I just can’t get behind that type of book right naw, you know? But it was one of the first books I added, I didn’t want to be a quitter, and I had a long weekend, so I figured I might as well plow through it.

Considering I really expected to not enjoy this book at all, a 3 out of 5 ain’t bad, but this book took me SO. LONG. to get into. Like, at least the first hundred and fifty pages. I just could not figure out how all of the characters were related or what the actual POINT of the book was, and the writing style was just not something I could get into, dialogue wise and whatnot. I went into it thinking it was about like, race wars and segregation and stuff? Nope – turns out it’s more about all of the incest and weird voodoo stuff going on in Mississippi at the time which, you know, is fine I guess, but not what I thought I had signed up for. And I just had a really hard time figuring out who everyone was, what made them tick, how they were connected, and all that jazz. Yes, eventually I seemed to pick up on some semblance of plot/direction/etc. and kind of went with that, and there were indeed pretty huge chunks that I found really interesting, but anything to do with Joody or Canaan and I was all #peacehaterz

I think it’s hilarious to see how many people didn’t even finish this book. Like scrolling through the reviews, people are really crucifying it and that is hilarious to me, just because I had to steel my nerves to pick it up and read it, and had anticipated hating it so much, and can see why people wouldn’t be able to get through the first hundred pages. I mean, for a book that’s gotten such high praise and was endorsed by OPRAH for crying out loud, it really isn’t all that well received. #bless GoodReads and its ability to understand that just because Oprah gives you a car and promotes a book, it still might not be that great.

I just can't read this book, I probably shouldn't even write a view because I am only 25 pages in. I am an avid reader! I have read so many books, and I read fast...I bought Mother of Pearl at a local bookstore in their used section. It caught my attention because it is on Oprah's Book Club. I have been trying to read this book for 7 months! I can't do it. In the meantime I have read many other books...every time I finish a book I, of course, need a new one to start. So every single time I pick up Mother of Pearl. I am only able to read about 2 pages at a time and then I am done.

I feel that it so jumbled together, the pages don't make sense. I have to re-read almost every page trying to make sense of why one line is about certain characters, and the next line about different characters. I see that there are many mixed reviews on this book, maybe you need to like a specific genre to be intrigued by Mother of Pearl. I am really not sure, because I like ALL different types of genres. I especially enjoy books that are written about the south. Although I find segregation and slavery a hard topic, I have always enjoyed movies, books, articles, etc. about this era. And by reading the book flaps about the book, I thought this would be one I would enjoy.

As of right now, I can't read it! It's too boring, and too much to follow. Maybe one day I will get farther and have a better review. I'm 25 pages in and the only thing I have made sense of is the character Valuable who's mom is pretty much the town whore. Her grandmother that raised her has passed away...and that is all I have learned in 25 long pages!

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes is an amazing novel. Written in 1999, it has been on my shelf for years. Moving has pushed me to review what is on those shelves and retirement is giving me more time to read. I took this book on my trip to Portugal, so much was read on airplanes.

It is set in Mississippi in 1956 and ends in 1961. In small Mississippi towns, the Civil Rights movement is not in the forefront. One character, Canaan Mosley follows the movement in the newspaper, he is personally victimized as he it hit with a bottle. An avid reader, he works as a janitor in the library, so he is there at night and not permitted on the grounds during the day. Yet, the core is the way he and his neighbor, Even Grade, support each other and also open new doors for each other both within the Black community create bridges to the White community. The characters are strong, but also, we learn their histories as we move through the book and see how personally they have each been harmed by racial injustices.

Black women are part of this circle, Joody Two Sun, and Grace. Grace, as been a caregiver to a White family, and follows them through various traumas. Joody Two Sun appears in the woods, a strong spiritual woman who is drawn to Even Grade, long working man whose orphan status has shaped him and some incidents in Memphis still haunt time. He meets Grace and see her as a potential partner for his friend, Canaan Mosley. The coupling is complicated for both, but they do endure.

We see members of the White community who have secrets that shape their lives, but many adults continue to keep the knowledge hidden from those most in need, even if the adult actions are taken to keep those secrets.

There are three young White people who pull members of the Black community into their world: Valuable, Joleb and Jackson. Valuable, a young girl who has lost her grandmother, Luvenia, who raised her in some supportive but questionable ways. With Luvenia’s death, Valuable’s mother, Enid is back in the picture, but they do not talk and Enid continues her seductive ways with various men. Eventually she does leave. Valuable’s other family, Neva and Bea, take over her care, when they can, moving her into their home and making plans for her future. Valuable sees how the knowledge of Joody Two Sun is more supportive of her real path. In that household Even Grade also comes to care for Valuable. They each recognize something in the other.

Joleb, is in the family that Grace cared for decades. In the face of losing his brother and mother, he depends on the support of others, since his family is keeping his own origins a secret. His mother suffered a stroke at his birth, so she did little mothering, Grace did that for him. As his finds his roots, he makes a new path.

Jackson, who has grown up with Valuable, comes to see her sexually, but his parents move him to Alabama. He is distant, while Valuable is with child. The plans for the child are complex, as family members has different ones. In removing Jackson from his community, his parents have cut his ties to people who initially cared about him.

Not focusing on the movement is a strength of this book, as we see how Black people continue to live in a segregated and racial divided rural area, but to connect in various ways. We also see the compromises and also the adjustments that White people make as they learn their real connections across color lines. Yet, we see how racial inequality harmed all and made it difficult for people to have real connections. It is the small Black enclave and the White folks who are connected to them who survive.

In this world of transient fads and media hype, books endure. One can discover and enjoy a book written decades, even centuries ago. Time does not diminish the impact of a great story.

I happened on Mother of Pearl at a used book sale. It was cheap enough that I didn’t spend much time debating. I just tossed it into my basket with the other dozen volumes I’d found. I didn’t realize I’d acquired a treasure until maybe a year later, when I began reading.

Mother of Pearl is a complex, lyrical, emotionally intense novel that doesn’t really fit into any genre category. Set in the small town of Petal, Mississippi in the mid nineteen fifties, it evokes a strong sense of place. Yet at the same time the conflicts and themes Ms. Haynes explores are universal.

It’s a bit difficult to summarize the plot of Mother of Pearl. Many events occur during its 500 or so pages, but the book is driven by the characters and their interactions. Central to the book is fourteen year old Valuable Korner, the precocious daughter of the town slut and an unknown father. She has grown up with her best friend Jackson McLain, but puberty has changed their relationship, bringing dangerous and confusing desires.

Meanwhile Even Grade, a black man from the next state, settles in Petal. A serious, intelligent sort, he wins the love of local witchy woman Joody TwoSun, who lives in the forest by the creek. Joody can read people, but she can’t read Even. That’s one reason she loves him. She can see that Valuable is headed for tragedy. However, knowledge doesn’t necessarily give you the power to change someone’s fate.

Then there’s elderly Canaan Mosley, the self-educated janitor of the Petal library, who has been working for years on his “thesis”, entitled “The Reality of the Negro”; and wealthy, cautious Neva, Jackson’s lesbian aunt, who lives with her frivolous partner Beatrice in a forbidding mansion near the river and nurses her secrets. And sleek, dark-skinned Grace, competent, calm, spending her life in service to white folks while nursing her own dreams. And teenaged Joleb, Jackson’s hapless sidekick, who finds a sort of wisdom in madness.

Each character in Mother of Pearl is vivid, real, and multi-faceted. Though their world could hardly be more different than mine, I felt that in some sense I understood them. As the strands of history and emotion entangle and connect them, I found myself swept along, like twigs in the River Leaf at flood.

Ms. Hayne’s prose is beautiful and evocative. She excels both at description and at dialogue. In particular, I loved her portrayal of the growing attraction between Valuable and Jackson, and its ultimate consummation. Teenage sex is a forbidden theme in erotica, of course, but perfectly permissible in literature. In this case, the book pulled me into their desperate confusion, making me feel the breathless, scary exhilaration of first love.

Mother of Pearl is not an easy book to read, categorize or review. Readers on Amazon have ranked it from puzzled or frustrated one-stars to ecstatic five-stars. The novel doesn’t flinch from darkness. It includes some violence, both human and natural. It deals with difficult topics. Although it’s a realistic book, it shimmers with hidden magic. Perhaps this is the overarching theme—that the world is simultaneously painful and full of wonder.

Really, I’m having a hard time conveying how much I loved this book, or why. I guess you need to read it yourself.

It was the worst read of my entire life. It is what I compare all other terrible reads to. I have no guilt saying it, because I truly gave it my all, hoping page after page it would get better. It doesn't. Wasted time and could have been spent reading Janet Fitch over a few times.

The book nearly lost me at the beginning - I think it was because I found the language quite difficult to grasp at first. Once I got used to it I reveled in the colloquialisms, sayings and conversations, especially between Even and Canaan. Such gems as "dead as a nob" and "cold as a witches tit" had me chuckling out loud.

The cast of characters is large, and at first seem rather random, but are connected nicely as the story goes on.

The book is really slow at first as well.....but it intrigued me and I was determined to plough on. Once the Green family were introduced to the mix I was hooked and read the last 300 pages in one sitting!

The thing that struck me most was the contrast between the black and the white adults. The teenage characters (white) suffer from the most awful parenting skills and a complete inability of their parents to guide, love and support. The blacks are feared and hated, and the victims of cruel discrimination and social exclusion by the so-called "superior" white-folk, yet have the most to teach us about relationships, compassion and family.

Definitely worth persevering with!