SOURCE: A review of Mother of Pearl, in Booklist, July, 1995, p. 1860.

[In the following review, Pearl describes Mother of Pearl as "well-written, lyrical, and terribly sad."]

Set in Ireland in the 1950s, this well-written, lyrical, and terribly sad novel [Mother of Pearl] is the story of Irene Rivers, who, at the age of 18, is sent away to a sanitarium to recover from tuberculosis. Long after Irene is cured, she stays on at Granitefield, which she regards as home. But when an act of kindness on Irene's part is misunderstood, she escapes by marrying the son of another patient and moving to Dublin with him. When Irene tells her impotent husband, Stanley Goodman, that she is pregnant, he inexplicably believes her. Like a rock gathering destructive force as it hurtles downhill, this one act of deception sets in motion events with lifelong repercussions for three women: Irene, the baby...