| View Larger Image | The Pearl Diver | Paperbackby Jeff Talarigo (Author)
| List Price: | $13.95 | | Price: | $11.16 | | You Save: | $2.79 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Anchor | | Page Count: | 256 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 12, 2005 | | Sales Rank: | 419,896th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9781400034918
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In 1948, a nineteen-year-old pearl diver's dreams of spending her life combing the waters of Japan’s Inland Sea are shattered when she discovers she has leprosy. By law, she is exiled to an island leprosarium, where she is stripped of her dignity and instructed to forget her past. Her name is erased from her family records, and she is forced to select a new one. To the two thousand patients on the island of Nagashima, she becomes Miss Fuji.Although drugs arrest the course of Miss Fuji's disease, she cannot leave the colony. Instead, she becomes a caretaker to the other patients, and through the example of their courage, she gains insight into the deep wellspring of strength she will need to reclaim her freedom. Written with precision and eloquence, The Pearl Diver is a dazzling meditation on isolation and community, cruelty and compassion. |
Amazon.com Review
A first novel of rare beauty and sensitivity, Jeff Talarigo's The Pearl Diver follows the harsh fate of a 19-year-old Japanese pearl diver who is diagnosed with leprosy. It is 1948. There are trial medications for her condition, but a weight of prejudice against her. Her name is erased from the family register, and she is rowed to a lifelong exile at the island leprosarium on Nagashima. Ordered to give herself a new name, she decides on Miss Fuji, for the mountain she loves. The balance of the novel is delivered in poignant fragments that appear as notes to a modern-day anthropological study of the leprosarium. Numbered artifacts like "An old map of Honshu" and "A blank white urn" spark stories of the patients Miss Fuji has known and cared for, most of whom were much sicker than she: crippled, blinded, deformed, but all the more human for their suffering. The cruelties inflicted on the patients at Nagashima almost rival the cruelties of the disease itself. Talarigo's novel could easily succumb to sentimentality, but he maintains the poise of Miss Fuji: one who watches, who does not forgive, but who will not be lowered by vengeance or despair. --Regina Marler |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 68 reviews)
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an insight into a time of the past by Nilene Belcher (san luis obispo, ca United States)  4 Stars
November 21, 2009
this is the courageous story of a young girl who was a pearl diver and found to be afflitcted with leprosous. It follows her life on to adulthood and how she tries to make a normal life for herself. I found it ver interesting and well written. It is a triumph over a dreadful disease. thank heavens theyhave found something to slow the progress, and some can lead a life in public.
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Tragedy of Leprosy and Human Scorn Unraveled in Beautifully Told Story by Brockeim (Where the wind blows.) 4 Stars
October 25, 2009
"The Pearl Diver" is a difficult book. Leprosy is not part of most our lives, and much of what we think of may involve Jesus Christ's healing of the 10 lepers in the Gospel of Luke. The book is not about leprosy, but it is the context which drives the story. It is about being confined in flesh, the ever present and ubiquitous human condition.
Imagine a young woman diving with great skill to the ocean floor. The grace, beauty and athleticism just off the shore of a Japanese island alone is an image to carry a reader through each page. Author Jeff Talarigo finds the proper tone and pace so as to begin the story well. A diagnosis of leprosy changes this scene, and the woman quickly moves to a leper colony. Her family cannot handle the shame and disowns her.
Giving context to the story are 'Artifacts', something Talarigo uses as object/symbols. The technique works like a subtitle within a chapter like as with "Artifact Number 0596: A bar of soap." The soap represents cleanliness and purity. Miss Fuji, as the young woman is called at the colony, carves them into shells or fish, and in them briefly finds freedom.
The tone of the book is beautifully dour. It never ebbs and flows like the waves of the ocean dove into, creating emotional exhaustion for readers who want to leave the book uplifted. But leprosy in the 1940s is not a happy disease. The disease itself is hard, as is the social outcasting that packaged with it.
It occasionally leaves a contemplative place and falls into sentimentality, and arcs into cynicism as Miss Fuji reacts against one patient who describes her faith to her. The most tragic portion is when Miss Fuji falls into intolerance, and "wants to rip their skin apart," whenever someone religious talks about what they believe. At once she claims it is OK for some, yet is enraged when patients discuss their beliefs openly.
The world continues on without her, and it will continue when she's gone. She understands this, but isn't satisfied and pursues freedom.
Excellently written, if a bit monotonic, "The Pearl Diver" is more than moralism wrapped in an exotic context. It looks for, and arrives at deliverance.
--Brockeim
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This small book is a "pearl" by Nitenurse (The Far East)  5 Stars
September 07, 2009
Oh,if only Jeff Talarigo would write faster. I need more of his books. This book is exquisite. Living on the Seto Inland Sea, I was happy to learn a piece of its history. The book is poignant and triumphant.
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This book really held my interest by MamaBear007 (Utah) 4 Stars
July 17, 2009
The Pearl Diver is a heartrending story of a young lady, who after it is discovered that she has leprosy, is relegated to a leper colony. I learned just how cruel life could be for a person suffering from leprosy in the mid-1900's. But the book isn't all tragedy. Even with the prospect of a lifetime of being rejected and mistreated by "normal" people (even the doctors could sometimes be quite cruel), she often rose to the challenge by putting others' needs ahead of her own, and proving that a person's happiness is determined more by his/her attitude than by circumstance. This was quite inspiring to me.
I would only offer one caveat. Some of the subject matter might be a bit mature for some children; there were a few times it dealt with sexual situations of everyday life. I didn't think it was crude, but some parents may want to read the book first before offering it to their children.
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I was entranced.... by Senora Gose (Bryan, Texas) 5 Stars
May 21, 2009
...by the culture, the insight of a cured woman and her ideas toward others who suffered from leprosy.
This book was very interesting in the views on abortion, population control, and the cycle of life in general. Pearl diving is not the main topic... which is what I was expecting. I'm thrilled with the difference that I received, rather than the expected. What a nice surprise.
Señora Gose
Mother, Teacher, Author
Flip Flop Spanish Series
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