Fiction Review     

The Secret of Hurricanes

By Theresa Williams

MacAdam/Cage, 2002

$17.50 (209 pages)

ISBN: 1-93156110-9

Pearl Starling is forty-five, pregnant, unmarried, lives in a trailer she inherited from her parents, and earns her living weaving rugs for an upscale crafts store. Locals like to remind one another she has a "colorful" past and church-goers want to save her soul.

Within The Secret of Hurricanes, Pearl explains her life to her unborn child. In telling her story, she discloses her desire for love from her parents, her inappropriate sexual behaviors, and her involvement in a murder.  

In Pearl Starling, Theresa Williams has created a memorable character who cares nothing for appearances or conventions. The Secret of Hurricanes is a poignant of tale of woman coming to middle age with the quiet that comes from surviving the hurricanes of her youth. 

Theresa Williams has degrees in art and English from East Carolina University and an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where she currently teaches.

Pam Kingsbury

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