Many siblings overcome estranged family relationships, but few decide to express this emotional advance by collaborating on a book of poems. "Pearls Beneath The Rind" invites the reader to enter the world of an older brother and younger sister of vastly different character and lifestyle. Although "Pearls Beneath The Rind" does not deal with Richard and Carole's relationship or the relationships between siblings, it demonstrates the divergent ways in how two siblings have experienced themselves and the world. As important, their cooperative act in writing it affirms that even heavily conflicted sibling relationships can substantially improve.
"In this duet the voices of brother and sister alternate to form a book as unique as its music as in its silences. Honest and mature, Pearls Beneath The Rind lifts and anchors, shimmies and sways. It's a joy to read."
-Michaela Carter, poet and author of Further Out Than You Thought (available summer 2014, Harper Collins).
"Reading these poems was like listening in on a conversation between Richard and Carole after a long separation.... The sudden and quick bits of humor juxtaposed with longing is present in both their poems. The balance of observations of what is with what could have been and might be is poignant and so human."
-Carol Christy White, author of Rain-The Private Poems of Li Qingzhao (to be completed soon) and President of the Arizona State Poetry Society.