The Necklace: Thirteen Women and The Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and The Experiment That Transformed Their Lives Review

THE NECKLACE tells the truly unique story of one woman, Jonell McLain, and thirteen of her friends. After closing a major real estate deal, Jonell was in the mood to treat herself. At the local mall in Ventura, Jonell's eye fell upon a gorgeous, 15.24 carat diamond necklace. Although Jonell tried the necklace on, there was no way that she could afford the ,000 price tag. However, when she returned to the store three weeks later to show the necklace to her mother, the price had dropped to ,000, and there was an sale coming up allowing customer bids. Jonell knew that even on auction, she couldn't afford the necklace on her own, yet she realized that if she could get together eleven of her friends, they could each afford to put in 00 and purchase the necklace together. And that's just what happened, except that the number of women in the group increased to thirteen when store owner Tom Van Gundy made Jonell a deal: he would give the women the necklace at the bargain price of ,000 IF they would allow his wife (whom he hadn't informed of his decision) to join their group.

In writing the story of this unique group of women and the necklace which brings them all together, author Cheryl Jarvis chose to focus each chapter of the book on a different group member, starting of course with Jonell and the group's genesis. I thought that this basic setup made sense, but I didn't think that Jarvis managed it very well. First, the demarcations between each woman's story are not particularly distinct. For example, even though Jonell is featured in the very first chapter, she dominates many of the other chapters as well, giving the book a very uneven feeling. Similarly, Jarvis gave readers more history and background information on some of the women than on others; again, this caused the book to feel unbalanced overall. Another thing I did not like had more to do with Jarvis's writing style. She includes very long sections of of direct quotes from the women, which I am guessing were taken from her interviews with each of them. Unfortunately, this makes the book feel more like an in-depth newspaper or magazine article. The women's stories would have worked so much better if they had been written in a more richly detailed, narrative format.

Overall, this book offers a great true story (I especially liked reading about Priscilla Van Gundy, the jeweler's wife), and for that it deserves five stars. However, the wonderful story also deserved better writing than it received from author Cheryl Jarvis, whose performance barely rates three stars.

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and The Experiment That Transformed Their Lives Feature

• ISBN13: 9780345500724
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and The Experiment That Transformed Their Lives Overview

One dayin Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a beautiful diamond necklace in a jewelry store window and wondered: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and one great leap of faith later, Jonell and twelve other women bought the necklace together–to be passed along among them all.

The dazzling treasure weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women. With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, they transcend their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey–and what started as a quirky social experiment becomes something far richer and deeper.

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