The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell

Source of book: Audiobook from the Library

 

The younger three kids and I just got back from an epic camping trip of nearly two weeks and 3000 miles of towing. (And also between 50 and 60 miles of hiking, depending on the kid.) Because of that long period spent in the car, we listened to five audiobooks. I’ll try to get those reviewed over the next week or so. This is the final one.

Back when I was a kid, I read quite a few Scott O’Dell books, including his historical fiction about indigenous peoples, and his fictionalized book about John Wycliffe. I believe the kids have read a number of ones we have in our personal library, but the only one I actually read to the older ones back in the day was The Island of the Blue Dolphins. Despite O’Dell being of my great-grandparents’ generation, I find his books to be refreshingly respectful of Indigneous culture and largely free of the white supremacist assumptions that plague so many who were born in the late 19th Century. 

 

The Black Pearl is a short book - only two audiobook discs. But it is a real gem. A pearl, one might say. Within the space of a short narrative, O’Dell creates a believable world, a small cast of characters, and a plot arc that feels perfect. 

 

Young Ramon Salazar is the son of a legendary pearl fisher and dealer on the coast of Baja California. Feeling frustrated at his father’s hesitation to teach him how to dive, he enlists the help of Luzon, an indigenous pearl diver who tells him of the existence of the Manta Diablo, a giant Manta Ray who is supernatural, transforming into a man, and jealously guarding his cave at the opening to the bay Luzon dives in. 

 

Ramon ventures near the cave one day, and brings back a huge oyster, which contains a giant pearl - the Pearl of Heaven, as he believes it to be. His father attempts to sell it, but, not getting his price, he donates it to the church, believing it will protect him and his fleet. 

 

This fails, however, and he is drowned in a storm, his fleet destroyed, and all except for one of his divers killed as well. The remaining diver is the swaggering braggart Gaspar Ruiz. 

 

Believing Luzon’s tales of the Manta Diablo, Ramon steals the pearl from the church, intending to return it to the sea. However, as he attempts to do so, it is captured by Gaspar, who wants to escape and sell it to become rich. He forces Ramon to accompany him. But their boat is stalked by the Manta Diablo, and Ramon knows it has come to retrieve the pearl. 

 

At this point, it is easy to see a few influences that O’Dell drew on for the book. The first is Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl. It isn’t an exact retelling, since the Manta Diablo is not in Steinbeck’s version. The long chase in the boat is reminiscent of Moby Dick in a way, although again, I would say it is a general influence, not borrowing. 

 

O’Dell’s descriptions are wonderful, his characters well drawn with a sparse prose that doesn’t waste words. The plot never feels hurried, despite the short length, yet the pace never seems to slacken. Nothing is left out of the book that needs to be there, and nothing is in the book that is unnecessary. It is a truly excellent bit of writing. It was a runner-up for the Newbery in 1968, losing out to E. L. Konigsberg and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler. 

 

The audiobook was narrated by Johnny Heller, who did an excellent job. 

 

Just a fun fact about O’Dell: his name was actually O'Dell Gabriel Scott, but a publisher accidentally put “Scott O’Dell” on a story - an understandable mistake - and O’Dell decided he liked it and used it as his pen name for the rest of his life.