The Pearl
Ratings181
Average rating3.4
Another fantastic tale from John Steinbeck. His descriptions of the environment that Kino and Juana live in are incredible - and haunting too.
I've always loved Steinbeck's writing, and this is no exception. I don't think the pearl is evil, I think people are evil, and the more power they have the more likely they will behave in an evil matter. The evil manifests in keeping poor people poor, by swindling them by using their lack of power.
I had no expectations going into this story. I listed to the audio book version read by Hector Elizondo and think that he did a fantastic job. The writing was good and the story surprised me by how dark it went. Highly recommend!
A strong 4. Having just read East of Eden, I needed me some more Steinbeck. The introduction to the books says he wrote this to play out like a film and it absolutely does. Speaking of the into, if your copy has it, wait to read it until after you finish. It gives basically the whole book away.
A small tale wich gives us a perspective how money and valuable things can corrupt such strong units like family. One of my favorite aspects was the “songs” and the way they connected with Kino and, through the songs, the author could give us an idea of the livings of Kino and his wife and all of the village.
The Pearl was a good book, but I don't think that can justify that some parts were unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, the plot was very excellent and I was very pleased with the ending, but I think there was a lot of unnecessary details that just slowed down the flow of the story. Now to the good parts of the book: It was very well written, and I really enjoy reading Steinbeck. The book's lesson was a very good one, and I recommend every one read this book. It has a very good lesson in store.
What a story of humanity and how we treat each other.
Hope, faith, greed.
Eye-opening, with the capacity to change the reader and have an impact, if the reader is open to such things.
Well! This was good and depressing!
The moral of the story is that if you have something good everyone will be jealous of you and try to rob/kill/destroy you and/or everything you love. But Steinbeck is still great, so.
CW: infant death
I read this a few years ago because it was a school read for my nephew and he liked it. Yes, it is haunting. The characters have stuck with me all this time. But it's sad and hopeless and has no hope for redemption. It makes me want to go find those people and tell them there's so much more to life than their little tragedy.