Ek het nog ‘n John Steinbeck, The Pearl,
op aanbeveling van my beminde begin lees.
Ek is nie lief daarvoor om boeke van dieselfde outeur kort na mekaar te
lees nie, maar was vreeslik in my skik met dié verhaal. Steinbeck het homself weereens as veelsydig en
innoverend bewys.
The Pearl word vertel as ‘n folktale,
as’t ware op ‘n primitiewe manier wat die primitiewe karakters beklemtoon. Wat die vertelling uitsonderlik maak is die
skrywer se verwysing na verskeie liedjies – The song of the Family,
The song of evil, The song of the Pearl
– wat die leser ook “hoor” soos die storie verwikkel.
Dié invalshoek dien dan ook as simbool vir die karakters
se stryd tussen goed en kwaad, die onsekerheid van die toekoms en die harde
realiteit.
“A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and
shoulders and feet. A town is thing separate
from other towns, so that there are no two towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a town is a mystery
not easily to be solved. News seems to
move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women
can call it over the fences.”
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