From Publishers Weekly
A is for ardent, avid, adoring—and such is Pearl, whose coming-of-age as Hester Prynne's bastard child is the subject of Noyes's debut. A reimagining of
The Scarlet Letter's characters, Noyes's drama unravels the puzzles of "heart and history that consumed" impish Pearl, taunted by puritanical "cretins" as the devil's spawn. While Hawthorne's Pearl serves his novel primarily as a symbol of innocence, provoking contemplation of morality and social organization in his adult characters, Noyes, a young adult writer with a penchant for the historical and gothic (
Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales), writes a Pearl of flesh and wit, who both dotes upon her stoic mother and despises her for their status as pariahs. As a child, Pearl's feminist musings frame the narrative: "Why did God hate the apple so?" Not until she leaves the New World and grows into womanhood does she feel the legacy of the scarlet
A. Pearl settles in England and marries the brother of her sole childhood friend, Simon. But it is Simon, blind and sullen, who sees Pearl for who she is. Noyes engages with atmospheric charms of time and place, and though the major turns of the novel are predictable, she delivers an ending revelation that would surprise Hawthorne himself.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Noyes' lyrical debut tells the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne's
The Scarlet Letter and beyond from the vantage point of Pearl, Hester Prynne's wild, elfin child. In Pearl's eyes, it is her mother who is mysterious and distant, and she seeks solace with another outsider, Simon Milton, whose blindness makes him fearful of the world around him. Pearl is both intrigued by and mistrustful of Dr. Devlin, the man treating the minister who takes a keen interest in her and her mother. Eventually, Pearl learns the truth about her origins, and, to her dismay, she and her mother leave the New World for England; and even though Simon and his family are headed to London, it seems worlds away from the countryside where Pearl and Hester end up settling. Pearl grows into a bewitching young woman, but it is Simon's older brother Nehemiah and not Simon who comes courting. Noyes does a remarkable job of capturing Puritan New England and the spirit and willfulness of Pearl, who is a compelling, sympathetic character in her own right.
Kristine HuntleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
