Pearl by Siân Hughes | The Miramichi Reader

alison’s Take

Marianne Brown returns to her old village for the Wakes, a yearly festival, bringing her teenage daughter, ready to see her mother’s gravestone. Marianne’s life has been marked by the disappearance of her mother, who walked out of their happy stone cottage when she was eight, never to return. The sudden shattering of Marianne’s life shaped the rest of it: she struggles to hold the size of her grief throughout her life, attempting to self-medicate in a variety of ways, and attempting to write down her story.
This is a meandering, thoughtful novel about grief. Hughes portrays grief and mental health compassionately if someone is veiled; Marianne often tells of her pain in a bemused manner. But it is really lovely, and the ending especially knocked it out of the park. The beauty of the final pages of the novel did take my breath away! Finally! In this somewhat lacklustre year of Booker nominees – lots of very good and fine books, but none that have grabbed me (thus far) like Pearl.

Clementine’s Take

When Marianne was eight, her mother walked out of their house and disappeared, leaving Marianne with only tenuous memories of her and her baby brother Joe with none at all. Life in their little village changes completely with their loss. As an adult, Marianne has her own daughter and returns to the village occasionally. She clings to her memories of her mother, which don’t always match up with how others view her life and disappearance.

This is a quiet novel about grief, memory, and belonging. It uses folk tales and songs to scaffold the narrative, bringing to life the small village with its own particular rituals and ways of life. In fact, what I liked most about this one is the way it looks at the particularities of place. The novel is mostly a series of vignettes, each one its own tale about Marianne’s life. It’s a well-done novel, but it didn’t wow me. As an exploration of grief, it didn’t feel particularly fresh or interesting, although I do think the dénouement is quite effective. I have a feeling this might be an unpopular opinion, but to me WESTERN LANE is a more interesting and poignant depiction of a child losing her mother. (And yes, I know HOW TO BUILD A BOAT also has this theme – so we’ll see how they all stack up in the end.) I wasn’t especially captured by the style, either. I think I expected a little more of the prose given that Hughes is a poet. I read this one in a day; it’s a pleasant, bite-sized read, but not one that’s likely to stick with me.

Should it be on the shortlist? Honestly, given the dearth of books that are really impressing me, I wouldn’t be mad, but I’m also not especially rooting for it.

Siân Hughes is a writer who grew up in Cheshire, the small village where the story of Pearl is set. Returning to live in the village after her mother’s death, she borrowed from the medieval poem “Pearl” to write a story set in an old house she used to cycle past every day as a child. Her first collection of poetry The Missing (Salt, 2009) was a Poetry Society Recommendation, longlisted for The Guardian first book of the year, shortlisted for the Felix Dennis and the Aldeburgh Prize and won the Seamus Heaney award. Siân lives in Cheshire with her son. Pearl is her first novel.

Alison Manley

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Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.

Clementine Oberst

Clementine Oberst is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in television studies. Born and raised in Toronto, she has lived in Montreal and Glasgow and now calls Hamilton home. When she isn't writing her dissertation, Clementine can be found knitting, trying to cultivate a green thumb, and playing with her cats. She loves nothing more than losing herself in a good book. You can connect with her on Instagram @clementinereads.