Read it as a kid and then again now in adulthood. If you choose to read this book, you will feel like you went through a meat grinder, not because it's not good but because it's SO good -- and bitter and tragic and beautiful and well-written and complex.

Short but very, very powerful.

داستان کوتاه مروارید نوشته استین بک بر اساس یکی از حکایت های قدیمی مردم مکزیک نوشته شده است وزندگی فقیرانه ماهیگران در کناردریا محور اصلی آنرا تشکیل می دهد . آنچه در کتاب مروارید همانند کتاب به خدای ناشناخته می بینیم توصیفات دقیق طبیعت از نگاه نویسنده است .
نویسنده با استادی پیوند و سازگاری انسان با طبیعت را نشان داده ، از نگاه او زندگی انسان تا زمانی که از طبیعت تغذیه می شود زیبا و اصیل است ، انسان کتاب او نیاز چندانی به شهر و خدمات شهری و پزشک ندارد ، طبیعت آنقدر سخاوتمند است که نیازهای او را پاسخ دهد . زندگی کینو قهرمان داستان تا زمانی که فقیر است گرچه به سختی اما با عشق ، آرامش و امنیت می گذرد . زندگی آن زمان از روال خارج شده که او آرزوی داشتن مال و منال و ثروت کرده . همین آرزوست که تباهی و نابودی خانواده او را رقم می زند . جوانا همسر او را می توان نقطه کاملا کینو دانست ، او فردی ایست که آینده تباه شده را گرچه می بیند اما به جبر روزگار باید حرف همسرخود را پذیرفته و تمکین کند .
استین بک یک بار دیگر روایگر زندگی اقشار فقیر جامعه و تلاش آنان برای رسیدن به یک زندگی بهتر شده . در کتاب او گرچه رگه های تبعیض میان سفید پوستان و سرخ پوستان ، ظلم و ستم سفید پوستان ، نابرابری و ناعدالتی را می توان دید اما موضوع اصلی کتاب را باید فقر و تلاش برای رهایی از آن دانست .
پایان کتاب او را می توان مانند بازگشت به اصل و پذیرش تقدیر دانست ، بنیان های جامعه از نگاه او گویا آن قدر محکم و استوار بنا شده اند که از آن نمی توان رهایی جست . نویسنده گرچه مبارزه را انکار نکرده اما برای آن هم پایان چندان خوشی متصور نشده است .

It’s Steinbeck. It was perfect.

Short but oh so impactful.

Continuing with my Steinbeck obsession....I meant quest to read his works, next up was The Pearl. I've decided to order them from my library and other sources and what ever shows up in my queue is what I read next. I just would not know what to select and want to read them all.

Steinbeck's The Pearl was inspired by a Mexican folk tale he heard. It tells the story of Kino, his wife Juana, and their baby Coyotito. One day Coyotito is stung by a scorpion and Kino takes him to the dr for help. But the dr is greedy and doesn't think the payment is adequate and refuses to treat the child. Kino, a fisherman, goes to the ocean to find a pearl for payment and finds the pearl of the world. The biggest pearl that anyone has seen. And so begins this wonderful, heart breaking tale of determination, greed, evil, and family. You feel for Kino, he wants what he feel he is owed for this pearl, to make a better life for his son, but along the way becomes a different person. He becomes hunted by evil for this pearl.

Oh I'm so glad I read this one, eh, listened to the audio narration. Again, another fabulous audio, this time done by Héctor Elizondo (who btw is in one my fav movies Frankie & Johnny). Love his voice and it was great to hear this story told, adding so much to it. It's very short, a little over 2 hrs in duration but such an unexpected treat. And now, I'm excited to see what shows up next in my library queue.

The Pearl is one of my favourite novels of all time.

Kino, a fisherman, his wife Juana and son Coyotito live in this small town where everyone knows each other's business. Their son gets bitten by a scorpion…this is where they will do anything to keep the baby alive but it will come at a cost.

This is a Steinbeck gem. The writing is gorgeous, his descriptions, his language is beautiful. This will be a re-read for me.

5/5

Typical Steinbeck novella based on bravery and tragedy

“It is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more.”

The Pearl is a moral allegory in narrative form; it is a revealing and instructional tale. At its very core, the novel establishes that wealth (in the form of a pearl) is not the answer to all our problems. In fact, it can create many more problems than it solves.

When Kino finds the treasure, he dreams of the opportunities it can bring him. He wants to get married in a big fancy church and he wants to send his son to school. However, when he attempts to sell it, he finds himself cheated by merchants (who see him as a dumb uneducated animal) and the object of envy from his neighbors. He finds himself in a dangerous situation as he is targeted by thieves and those who would do him, and his family, harm just to get their hands on the pearl. Kino becomes obsessed with protecting it and protecting the dreams he thinks it can realize.

Set against a backdrop of racial prejudice and a disparity of wealth and opportunity, the short work depicts the rural Mexican experience in the face of a modernizing world. Kino has more decency and respect for others, but often finds himself treated as lesser. He has better values, though for all his good intentions, he doesn’t quite grasp the opportunistic nature of the world. Human greed and materialism are virtues many live by. The Pearl works towards establishing how dangerous and foolish such virtues are.

Overall, it is a very good novel with a powerful central motif. It is, however, somewhat vanilla, and unemotional in its narrative power. The story falls just short of greatness as it fails to capture the intensity of the human experience with its bland diction and expression. The characters don’t really drive the story forward, the pearl does, and because of the brevity of the work they never really establish themselves or develop (until the reversal at the end.)

Moreover, the novel lacks a certain sense of drive and plot. Compared to the complexities of The Grapes of Wrath it’s a bit of a basic story. Indeed, the characters from of Of Mice and Men are well crafted and deeply flawed individuals by comparison. The ones here don’t quite have chance to shine. For me, this is very much a weak novel by a great writer who has done much better. It’s certainly worth a read, but I feel it could be a much better price of writing.

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Cada una de las páginas de mi primer Steinbeck me ha mantenido con la respiración contenida y una inquietud palpitante. La perla es una novela breve pero poderosísima. He quedado maravillada con la prosa del autor, su misticismo y su forma de abordar las profundidades de la condición humana.

Los paisanos de Kino habían cantado ya a todo lo que sucedía o existía. Habían hecho canciones a los peces, al mar embravecido y al mar en calma, a la luz y a la oscuridad y al sol y a la luna, y todas las canciones estaban en Kino y en su gente, todas las canciones que habían sido compuestas, aun las olvidadas. La canción estaba en Kino cuando llenaba su cesta, y el ritmo de la canción era el de su corazón batiente que devoraba el oxígeno del aire de su pecho, y la melodía de la canción era la del agua gris verdosa y los animales que se escabullían y las nubes de peces que pasaban velozmente por su lado y se alejaban. Pero en la canción había una cancioncilla interior oculta, difícil de percibir, aunque siempre presente, dulce y secreta y pegajosa, casi escondida en la contramelodía, y era la Canción de la Perla Posible, pues cada una de las conchas puestas en la cesta podía contener una perla. Las probabilidades estaban en contra, pero la fortuna y los dioses podían estar a favor. Y Kino sabía que en la canoa, encima de él, Juana hacía la magia de la plegaria, con el rostro crispado y los músculos en tensión para obligar a la suerte, para arrancar la suerte de la mano de los dioses, porque necesitaba la suerte para el hombro hinchado de Coyotito. Y porque la necesidad era grande y el deseo era grande, la pequeña melodía secreta de la perla posible sonaba con más fuerza aquella mañana. Frases enteras de esa melodía entraban, clara y dulcemente, en la Canción del Fondo del Mar.

Very thought provoking and a huge insight into the greed of so many people.

Poor pearl diver in South America finds giant-ass pearl, decides to sell it and use the money to buy medicine for his baby, who just got bitten by a scorpion. The mierda hits the fan, people die, everything generally goes to hell in a handbasket, and it all happens in about the space of time it took you to read this review.

Verdict: meh.

Read for: 10th grade English

goodreads david writes this: I'm convinced that the general besmirchers of Steinbeck are fucktards, asswads, and vibrating pustules.

it's nice as a reader (bad, i guess, as a reviewer) when a writer achieves can-do-no-wrong status. reading steinbeck i feel less distance between the writer -> his words -> myself than with nearly any other writer. his prose stylings can't touch his contemporaries, his structure and pacing can be sloppy, he's sentimental, preachy, overly didactic, and his themes arrive with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the kneecaps.

but who gives a shit? i'm not grading a paper. he gets an A+ and a gold star at the top of his paper for cannery row, possibly the most complete and interesting fictional world i've encountered; travels with charley, my all-time favorite travelogue; and grapes of wrath, a flawed but incredibly moving masterpiece.

and the pearl... a clumsy and sweet fable, overwrought and obvious -- definitely a lesser work. but it's steinbeck writing and he's filled with such love for mankind, wonder at nature, and joy at the strange eccentric and eclectic that, even if upon reading the remainder of his writings i find the literary equivalent of sex with goodreads david... steinbeck remains untouchable.