For about two years, I've been trying to remember this wonderful book I read as a teenager. I loved this book. For some reason, I gave away my copy. How sad. In trying to remember the title, I was even looking at old pictures of my room, looking at the bookshelves, trying to figure out what books were on it. (No luck!)

Yesterday, a word came to me - Pearl. The title had Pearl in it.

And I found it!

I read this book several times. A teenage girl dies and revisits her past lives. It was a fascinating book for me to read. If I ever see a copy of this somewhere, I may have to buy it. ( )

I read this long ago, and even tho I haven't re-read it I keep it on my shelves for the glow of pleasure & remembered learning it brings me whenever I glimpse it. It gave me a strong connection with the idea of a life beyond death, a purpose to life, the idea of striving to improve myself. Not to say I've done so well at self-improvement, but at least it keeps me from absolute despair at some of the mistakes I've made. ( )

I first read this book in junior high school, and it has stayed with me ever since. I think of it often and dig out my tattered paperback to re-read it and always pick up something new.

This is the story of Margaret Redmond, who dies of asthma at the age of seventeen in the year 1900. She finds herself in a strange "heaven" where she meets Paul, a member of a large Chinese family who lives in a great compound. Paul's grandmother, the matriarch of the clan, has predicted that Margaret will destroy the compound. Margaret does not understand this, or anything else at first. She begins to remember other lives, one as an Indian slave, Zawumatec; another as a sailor's wife named Elizabeth; and finally the life in ancient Sumer, where she was a doomed prince named Tirigan. Margaret must confront the lessons learned in these lives and the curse and hatred that have clung to her throughout the centuries before she can find peace and learn who "Paul" really is. A moving tale of reincarnation and the power love and hate have in shaping our destinies. ( )

Not an easy book to like, I'd say. I've read it several times since I first it as a young teen. What it said to me then colors what it says now. For the complex idea it tries to explore, the approach is a little over-simplified, but that requires the reader to add more to the story, almost as if the author depended on it. It's a very small book to carry so much weight, and it is hampered by a lot of oblique approaches to the taboo subject at its center. ( )

I haven't read this in thirty years but I remember being enthralled by it, and then disappointed by Nichols' "A Walk out of the World" and "The Marrow of the World". I don't remember many details. Two come to mind--various quotations enfolded into the narrative from the most fascinating and arcane sources, and my feeling of distress when it was time for Margaret to return. A short book, barely 120 pages. ( )