Voice draws listeners closer to Pearl's 'Heart'
Tue Oct 21, 6:56 AM ET
By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
"Where is Danny? Where's my boy?"
To read Mariane Pearl's A Mighty Heart, a breathtakingly poignant account of the kidnapping and murder of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, is to share Pearl's most personal thoughts and fears. To hear her voice her concerns for Daniel on the audio version is enough to make listeners feel too intimate a connection to another person's loss.
Yet, Pearl seems to want listeners and readers to know what it's like to lose a loved one to terrorism; she dedicates the book to her husband "because you had the courage of the most solitary act: to die with your hands in chains but your heart undefeated."
If A Mighty Heart the book is the story of Daniel Pearl, A Mighty Heart the CD audio (Simon & Schuster, six hours, $30) is the story of Mariane and her indomitable strength. One can only wonder where a woman, now a single mother, can find the courage to voice the words that her book collaborator, Sarah Crichton, says were too painful for Pearl to write. (Audio:Hear Pearl read from A Mighty Heart)
Crichton, who worked with Pearl on the book last year, says she wrote the parts Pearl found too difficult to put on paper. Crichton says that many days she and Pearl would "cry and write" the wrenching account of Daniel's kidnapping and death.
Pearl's audio account is enriched by her heavily accented English. A native French speaker, Pearl is half Cuban and half Dutch "with so many ethnic strains" in her that she is the quintessential global citizen. Her ancestry includes Jewish, Arab, Asian and African blood. She writes, "I felt like history had worked very hard for me to enjoy being a bit of everything."
Who she is genetically as well as spiritually adds depth to her story. The book articulates every detail of the search for Daniel Pearl and the sordid connections of his disappearance in Pakistan to regional politics and racial and religious bigotry.
But the most acute passages deal with Mariane's vigilance and willingness to confront terrorists, politicians, military personnel, the FBI (news - web sites) and the management of The Wall Street Journal in her efforts to rescue her husband. Her determination is mesmerizing as she worries for Daniel and for the baby that has been growing inside her for six months.
Her recitation of the events leading up to the kidnapping through the eventual retrieval of Daniel Pearl's body is nearly clinical. And yet, as objective as she attempts to be, listeners will pick up on vocal quavers and her voice dropping in pitch when she relates particularly emotional passages: her hate for the kidnappers, the last time she kissed her husband, recollections of reconnecting at the end of a workday.
"I run into his arms and bury my face in his neck," she relates. "I stay there, wanting to get drunk on his smell, wanting to feel some of his sweat," how he would caress her face, calling her "my wife, my life."
Pearl declined requests to discuss how she found the courage to vocalize her story. But in her words, readers can hear the laments of countless families who have lost loved ones to terrorism. Her book and the audio account are a testament to her indomitable spirit, a power that will help the Pearls' 17-month-oldbaby, Adam, one day understand his parents' exquisite love and bravery.