Pearce Oysters: A Novel

A well researched, beautifully written debut. Accurate depiction of BP’s attempts to cap the well in 2010. Excellent example of eco-fiction representing a contemporary disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

This book was powerful and honestly made me crave some serious seafood.I remember the BP oil spill back in 2010 and how awful it was on such a huge scale. However, what this book does is show how devastating the spill was to actual, every-day people which makes the disaster seem so much more personal.This book follows the Pearce family who have run their own oyster business for generations in Louisiana, but now face losing everything with the BP spill. Jordan, the eldest son, runs the company, looks out for the family, and is resentful of his younger brother, Benny who ran off to New Orleans to start a nonexistent music career. Now that the spill has run off their other workers, Jordan and Benny have to come together to look after their family’s legacy.Listen, I live for a family drama and this book has it in spades. Plus, you’ve got Louisiana dripping off of every page. It also provides such insight into all the work that goes into oyster farming, which was fascinating.But what this book really captures is the impact to the actual people that lived on the coast. These are folks that are barely getting over Hurricane Katrina and now they’re facing another horrific disaster. I truly have a whole new appreciation for everything that the people had to do on the coast to survive.

I don’t even like oysters but I’m loving this book! The author has written an excellent debut. Much to learn about the seafood industry and our history of oil production encroachment on food and human safety. 3 main characters are fully engaging

Not your typical portrait of a family. Rather, this is a family whose very existence is rocked, then slowly unravels in the midst of a manmade crisis as their 100-year-old business set in a coastal Louisiana town, where you can practically feel the heat and humidity, is faced with its undoing and they have some difficult decisions to make. Tragedy and trauma converge, permeating a family, barely hanging on to their business and each other, in this emotional and enlightening story.At times, I felt like I was reading non-fiction, as this searing tale takes us deep into Golden Vale struck hard by the 2010 British Petroleum oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico wreaking one of the worst environmental disasters, harming the fishing industry and public safety. The Pearce family, dominant oyster farmers, have fallen on hard times, now led by Jordan, who took over when their patriarch died suddenly, barely keeping things afloat. His brother Benny was never interested in the business, he’s a struggling musician living in New Orleans, not visiting home as often as their widowed, distraught mother May would like. Nature, once bountiful and now damaged, is both a setting and a character, everyone around her is forced to adjust in varying ways. Even if the Pearces can’t agree about oyster farming, they share common romantic challenges.A thought-provoking story you can’t easily turn away from with sensitive characters each harboring their own troubles, wondering if they can come together during a crisis. You can’t help but feel angry, angst, and sadness for how the Pearces as well as many others who work as paid laborers beholden to the industry are let down and disregarded by big oil, their existence, which they have given to the bounty of the water, now diminished. PEARCE OYSTERS tackles relevant issues including climate action, migrant workers, healthcare, among others. It is a cautionary eco-tale that speaks to fear for the future and the helplessness to prevent the dangers coming for our climate. It is the fictional Pearce family that allows us to pause, to think about real people behind actual environmental tragedies, that give us hope, perhaps increases our sense of wonder about the natural world and inspires us to take action.

I read Pearce Oysters by Joselyn Takacs in bits and pieces during the last couple of days while traveling and the story did not let me go, even though I was interrupted countless times I had to keep on reading.This is a character driven story focusing on a family of oysterman during the 2010 BP oil spill. While some of that catastrophe - the race to find a way to close the leak was still fresh in my mind, the impact on coastal communities had not stayed as close, I am sorry to say. I was drawn in by Joselyn Takacs characters, especially brothers Jordan and Benny and their mother May, and their relationships, the shadow of their pre-deceased father. These brothers are not friends or friendly in the best of times but now external circumstances force them to work together- can they get past their differences and long held grudges ?The oil spill combined with fresh water diversions kills their oyster reefs and their family company. Pearce Oysters takes them from the time of the oil threatening to come to their reefs all the way to the closing of the family business and the pressure this puts on them and their familial relationships is wonderfully portrayed.The callousness displayed by the oil company, the talks given at the high school auditorium by scientists, the insular community that can’t believe the bayou that fed them could actually be killing them now, so well written, so much to think about !

I feel like I know these people. The writing is so real. Joselyn Takacs concisely portrays a gripping story of a family in crisis. While their specific struggle is unique to their family business—oyster farming—and full of fascinating detail, their interactions are universally lived. Bravo! on a first novel. Amazing!