The Pearl Glistened in the Darkness

Last night I turned the last page of the 90-page short novel by John Steinbeck. And here is the feedback. I've been a fan od Steinbeck ever since I read his Grapes of Wrath a few years ago. And now, after The Pearl, my commitment to remaining Steinbeck's fan has become deeper. From here, there is nowhere to go but be his fan forever.

The Pearl is a very short story about Kino, his wife Juana and their son Coyotito. But it is not the length that matters. The power with which their story has been narrated will leave a permanent mark.

It is a simple story about love and greed, poverty and hunger, hardship and social segregation, power and economics. Due to poverty, lack of education and the spectre of hunger, a pearl diver, Kino, when he hunts the largest pearl in the world, wants to sell it in the local market. But he is not offered a good price for it. Meanwhile, the news of the pearl spreads, and people want to steal it or forcibly take it away from him that night. Someone even burns his brush house in greed.

Kino decides to leave his village and go to the city to sell it. He's also haunted by the fear of being stalked for the pearl, which he hibes in his person carefully. His wife throughtout gives him company and accepts whatever decision he takes.

In the long journey to the city, the family faces immense hardship. The baby boy, who has been previously stung by a scorpion and has been treated by the doctor, also faces this arduous day. Then Kino and Juana sees three people on thebeach hunting for them. They hide with the baby, try to walk away into a secret cave.

The only way now for Kino to save themselves from the three men catching them and forcing the pearl out of them was to kill them, which he planned to do with the rifle the men were carrying. So, when the sun set, before the moon rose, he waited to jump on the men and wrestle their rifle out of them.

He was able to kill two of them in a mental state that was possessed, and the third ran away. But then, in the scuffle, he also ends up killing his own son.

Later, Kino and Juana returns to the village, but they were the saddest couple, carrying the dead body of their baby boy. Juana had always said that the unnatural pearl was evil and had asked Kino to throw it into the sea, but he never listened to her. Now that the baby was dead, he listened to her. But it was too late.

Lingering like wine

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an excellent novel, lingering like wine. And it is all due to the cold and the hunger and the suffering of Ivan. It is also due to the countless prisoners, the gang leaders, the guards, the repeated counting of the gangs. The prisoners working outside in the biting cold, hungry, sick, and homesick, are hawklike, ready to snitch food from anybody. And the apathy of the prison authorities when it comes to the condition of the prisoners.

There is endless hope too, about a parcel, about extra food, about lowering years of sentence, about not being put in the cell where less food is supplied and which is cold. Fear about not to be caught with anything like wood or knives in one's person. The leadership pattern was such that the prisoners listened only to their leaders.

There is closeness of some prisoners with others, as they sympathized, bought and sold tobacco. There were other kinds of sharing too.

he writer's style is personal, and the reader feels a part of the story. There is curiosity, and no boredom while reading the book, although it describes only one day. The ending is optimistic - of a day well-spent.