The Pearl by John Steinbeck ****

Now, you should know this about me first before we get started: John Steinbeck might be my favorite author, so I'm going to be biased. My first experience was with his short story, "The Red Pony" in the sixth grade. At the time, I remember being embarrassed that an assigned book made me cry-I didn't thing assignments were supposed to effect you like that. I was haunted by the endearing bond between the boy and his pony, and the heartbreaking loss of it. In fact, I think it stayed with me so long because it's the first time I remember reading a story where the "hero" didn't make out with everything he always wanted in the end. But everything I've read by him since then has stayed with me in a similar haunting but beautiful way.

"The Pearl" is the fifth of his works I've read. I'm trying to pace myself to no more than one per year so I don't exhaust his library too fast. If there's one word I have for those dabbling in Steinbeck for the first time, it's this: savor. Don't read too fast. Don't be afraid to go back and re-read passages before moving on. "The Pearl" is no different, though I found it more challenging than some of his others to take slowly, because there seemed to be more action in this one. I wanted to pause and re-read his description of the way the light bounced off the early-morning motes in the air on the first few pages. But the fact that those motes were bouncing off a scorpion poised on a rope above the hero's baby ... I couldn't stop reading.

As I read, I couldn't help seeing it in my mind's eye as a silent movie (because language is oddly immaterial in this story). But more important than the visual (which was some stunning cinematography in my brain), was the music. Constant, ever-changing, subtle music. And I wish I knew more about music so I could have composed a fitting score. But instead, I just imagined what it might have sounded like ... and I already can't wait to read it again ... in a few years, of course.