Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls - Softcover

Bloom, Stephen G.

3.46

107 ratings by Goodreads

9780312573638: Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312573634 ISBN 13: 9780312573638

Publisher: Griffin, 2011

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A round, luminescent pearl is the simplest and most perfect gem. Columbus sought—and found—this precious jewel coveted by his Spanish sovereigns, sparking popularity throughout Europe. Fashion icons Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Grace, and Michelle Obama cherished them, making them iconic. And designer Coco Chanel raised them to new heights, bringing pearls— fake and real—to women everywhere. In Tears of Mermaids, Stephen G. Bloom travels 30,000 miles in an effort to trace a single pearl—from the moment a diver off the coast of Australia scoops an oyster containing a single luminescent pearl from the ocean floor to the instant a woman fastens the clasp of a strand containing the same orb. Bloom chronicles the never-before-told saga of the global pearl trade by gaining access to clandestine outposts in China, the Philippines, French Polynesia and Australia. He infiltrates high-tech pearl farms guarded by gun-toting sentries, farms for pearls in rural China, and even goes backstage at Christie's for a fast and furious auction of the most expensive pearl ever sold. Teeming with rogue humor and uncanny intelligence, Tears of Mermaids weaves a nonstop detective story whose main character is the world's most enduring jewel.

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Review:

"In "Tears of Mermaids," Stephen G. Bloom tells the history of the pearl trade down to the present day, focusing in particular on the harvesting and marketing of pearls in today's global markets. As Mr. Bloom makes clear, pearls are still big business, with dealers routinely exchanging hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time for just the right ones. And certain pearls command astonishing prices. One striking quality of pearls, Mr. Bloom tells us, is the aesthetic rapport they form with their wearers, absorbing body heat and seeming to glow and reflect luminescence onto the skin. For millennia, only the wealthiest members of society could hope to know this quality first-hand. And now millions of people can."--"Wall Street Journal""a labor of love and obsession. Bloom was inspired by a necklace his mother would wear only on special occasions and wound up traveling 30,000 miles over four years in his quest to uncover info on the global pearl trade and its origins."--"New York"" Post """Tears of Mermaids" is more than just the biography of a milky orb. It's also an adventurer's travel log, in which Bloom muses on his favorite experiences like living as a deckhand on an Australian pearling vessel and singing karaoke with Chinese businessmen.Bloom's adventure goes a long way in proving the pearl is anything but plain-especially when he's observing an auction at Christie's, where a string of 68 gumball-sized pearls belonging to an Indian Maharaja are up for grabs. Final price? $6.3 million."--"More Magazine""The most memorable pearls in" Tears of Mermaids" are not in the necklace Michelle Obama wears, but the ones that are missing. Time after time, a fisherman, diver, or small-scale pearl farmer recalls a tremendous pearl he found on the ocean floor. But they always disappear: lost, sold by a spouse, swindled away by a supposed friend. The fishermen seem upset, but not much. They seem to know, even without an economics class, that the value is not the pearl

About the Author:

STEPHEN G. BLOOM, the Bessie Dutton Murray Professor of Journalism at the University of Iowa, is the author of Postviile: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America, Inside the Writer's Mind, and The Oxford Project (with Peter Feldstein). For more than 20 years, Bloom was an award-winning reporter for The Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and San Jose Mercury News. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

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