A debut novel from Jeff Talarigo, The Pearl Diver is a difficult book to recommend. Beautifully written, the story of a girl with leprosy sentenced to live her lifetime secluded from society is often bleak. That Talarigo incorporates much historically accurate information from the Nagashima Leprosarium, makes this a very sad read.
In 1948, a young girl works as a pearl diver off Shodo Island in the Inland Sea of Japan. One of a group of hardy women, she is quickly learning the age-old skill. The discovery of a spot one day signals that she has leprosy, and she is shunned by her family. Removed by authorities to nearby Nagashima Island, she is striped of her name, removed from the family register as if she never existed, disinfected and assigned a bed in communal housing. So fearful were people of the little known disease, when she disembarks onto the island, all her clothes, the clothes of the boatman and even the boat itself are burned to avoid infection. She is now one of seventeen hundred patients in various stages of decay. Daily they must work in all aspects of the community, including health care and farming. She has chosen a new nickname - Miss Fuji - and is assigned to assist the abortions of pregnant women. Her only respite, walking out in low tide to a smaller island nearby that features a shrine. From here she can see the mainland, swim alone in the sea, and dream of one day returning.
In time there is the hope of a new drug that slows the disease, brighter moments when a band is formed, and as the years go by secretive trips to the mainland. Although she must surrender to the fact she can never leave the island, friendships are made within the community, and life lived.
It's far from an uplifting story, told through listed articles which may be found at the actual Nagashima Leprosarium and medical research into leprosy. Her situation was heavy, and at times off-putting, as the patients are treated inhumanely with disgust and contempt. Regardless of the changes in medical science over the years, she can never be permitted her own life, as she seeks to find connections and comforts, like those brief moments when she can escape to the sea and swim freely.
A well written and researched book that has beautiful moments, amidst unending sadness.
2004 / Hardcover / 240 pages
Comments