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A review by mjdolce
The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank
2.0
There were aspects of this book that I liked. But they were few and far between, and there were way more things I hated.
I'm fairly certain we are supposed to like the main character. I'm not sure why, but the book is written in a way that suggests that we're supposed to be on her side. I frankly couldn't stand her. Part of this is that she is in her 90s, so her views of women and their roles are seriously skewed. And I can accept that from a literary perspective. But this book was written in 2007, and seriously, can we not go ahead and move past the idea that if a man is cheating, it's the woman's fault for not being pretty enough or appealing enough to him?? I could move past the constant complaining about technology and wistful reminiscing over how much better things were "back in her day". But the view of women in this book was really hard to read.
Then there's the family. They are all terrible. Now we're supposed to think they are all terrible, so the author succeeds here in making us feel that. But also we're supposed to buy that by the end one magical ... housekeeper (look, I'm going to get to this in a sec, but this is so CRINGE!) has the ability to fix everything including infidelity, drug addiction, etc in any kind of satisfying way?? I get it's a magic Christmas story, but this is just ridiculous. I wanted all of these people to get divorced and put everyone out of their misery.
And then there's Pearl. She is written so stereotypically, I have no words. She's sent back as an angel to fix this family, and I get that the main character sees her as her "friend" and not as ... God, I'm trying so hard not to use this horribly offensive word here, but I can't get around it. She's a mammy. And it's awful. I swear, I had to look at the publication date 3 times to believe this was written in 2007 and not the 60s or 70s. It's just terrible. The character isn't terrible. In fact she is one of the only likable things in the whole book. But the whole idea of her and what she is there to do... It just made me SO uncomfortable.
At the end of the book, the one character who is separated from her husband... Well the husband shows up at the door, and the narrator tells us that he's black in just the grossest way possible, and seriously? Is this meant to tell us that she's not racist because one of the characters married a black guy? I just can't even with this part.
And finally (I swear, I'm stopping after this), the sweet boy (the only one of the great grandchildren who isn't horrible) who is clearly dyslexic gets "fixed" by the angel, and I wanted to throw things. He also reads from the family bible, and if I cared any more about this drivel than I do, I would have gone and looked up what version that the author chooses to quote here was published, because I'm certain that the only version that this family bible could be is the King James, and that was 100% not what he was reading... But at that point I was just done.
I did feel like the author got the "old Charleston" aspects of the book right. And I especially liked them waking up to snow on Christmas morning. As a charlestonian myself, I could see the magic in this, and it was really well written. Oh, and the audiobook narrator was great.
And honestly the snow is the only reason this book is getting 2 stars instead of 1. I know I'm in the minority on this, and maybe I'm just not DBF's target audience. And that's fine. But it's going to take me a while to get over the fact that I read this. I'm really glad it wasn't any longer, or I wouldn't have made it.
I'm fairly certain we are supposed to like the main character. I'm not sure why, but the book is written in a way that suggests that we're supposed to be on her side. I frankly couldn't stand her. Part of this is that she is in her 90s, so her views of women and their roles are seriously skewed. And I can accept that from a literary perspective. But this book was written in 2007, and seriously, can we not go ahead and move past the idea that if a man is cheating, it's the woman's fault for not being pretty enough or appealing enough to him?? I could move past the constant complaining about technology and wistful reminiscing over how much better things were "back in her day". But the view of women in this book was really hard to read.
Then there's the family. They are all terrible. Now we're supposed to think they are all terrible, so the author succeeds here in making us feel that. But also we're supposed to buy that by the end one magical ... housekeeper (look, I'm going to get to this in a sec, but this is so CRINGE!) has the ability to fix everything including infidelity, drug addiction, etc in any kind of satisfying way?? I get it's a magic Christmas story, but this is just ridiculous. I wanted all of these people to get divorced and put everyone out of their misery.
And then there's Pearl. She is written so stereotypically, I have no words. She's sent back as an angel to fix this family, and I get that the main character sees her as her "friend" and not as ... God, I'm trying so hard not to use this horribly offensive word here, but I can't get around it. She's a mammy. And it's awful. I swear, I had to look at the publication date 3 times to believe this was written in 2007 and not the 60s or 70s. It's just terrible. The character isn't terrible. In fact she is one of the only likable things in the whole book. But the whole idea of her and what she is there to do... It just made me SO uncomfortable.
At the end of the book, the one character who is separated from her husband... Well the husband shows up at the door, and the narrator tells us that he's black in just the grossest way possible, and seriously? Is this meant to tell us that she's not racist because one of the characters married a black guy? I just can't even with this part.
And finally (I swear, I'm stopping after this), the sweet boy (the only one of the great grandchildren who isn't horrible) who is clearly dyslexic gets "fixed" by the angel, and I wanted to throw things. He also reads from the family bible, and if I cared any more about this drivel than I do, I would have gone and looked up what version that the author chooses to quote here was published, because I'm certain that the only version that this family bible could be is the King James, and that was 100% not what he was reading... But at that point I was just done.
I did feel like the author got the "old Charleston" aspects of the book right. And I especially liked them waking up to snow on Christmas morning. As a charlestonian myself, I could see the magic in this, and it was really well written. Oh, and the audiobook narrator was great.
And honestly the snow is the only reason this book is getting 2 stars instead of 1. I know I'm in the minority on this, and maybe I'm just not DBF's target audience. And that's fine. But it's going to take me a while to get over the fact that I read this. I'm really glad it wasn't any longer, or I wouldn't have made it.